Report by Neil Kingston

Munster Masters Track & Field Championships 2019

Eagle A.C. Medals:

Ken Higgs (M65): 1st 400m, 1st 800m, 2nd 1500m

Pat Murphy (M60): 2nd 1500m

Tom Fox (M50): 2nd 800m, 2nd 1500m

Neil Kingston (M45) 2nd 400m

Four members of Eagle AC travelled to Templemore on June 9th to compete in the Munster Masters Track and Field Championships. The track is similar to CIT and in the coming weeks they are spending €75,000 on resurfacing which is the next best thing to digging it up and completely replacing it. With an indoor track in Nenagh and the soon to be resurfaced track in Templemore, athletes in Tipperary have excellent facilities to train and compete all year round.

The 800m was first up for team Eagle, it seemed to take everyone by surprise as events were running slightly ahead of schedule. Ken and Tom did well to perform under the circumstances. Gold for Ken, silver for Tom. The next race on the Eagle programme was the 100m for Neil who had to turn on the after burners after a very hesitant start from the blocks. But making up lost ground in a 100m sprint is near on impossible so he was just edged out of the medals.  There was quite a wait for the next event and in the meantime the weather turned. A downpour leading up to and during the 400m made it difficult for Ken and Neil and the other competitors both for preparation and racing. No nonsense from Ken as usual, just doing the business. Neil was leading down the home straight but at the finish line the eventual winner threw himself over the line to snatch the gold by a fraction of a second. Exciting racing and a valuable lesson. So another gold for Ken and silver for Neil.

Fortunately the weather cleared for the final event which was the 1500m and Tom, Pat and Ken were all in the one race with the age groups mixed. All the Eagles ran smart steady races and produced fast finishing kicks to round out a great day for the club. Three more silvers. Ken deserves a special mention for competing in both the 400m and the 1500m as they were held only 25 minutes apart. While still getting his breath back from his exertions in the 400m he had to report to the check in area to sign in for the 1500m!

The performance of the day was by Tom Fox who bagged silvers in the 800m and 1500m. What was particularly impressive were his steady splits, strong finishes and the times he produced. Tom is coming to the middle distance events from the endurance end with no special speed work done. In fact Tom had won the men’s over 50 category prize in the Cork City half marathon just 7 days before. What a range. With some specific middle distance training Tom can definitely shave a few seconds off his times which will make him competitive for national medals.

Special message from Tom: “Competing in track races is not much different to the track work that members do on a weekly basis at CIT. The club would encourage members to check out results of the Cork County & Munster Track & Field Championships on line. There are many members who would be competitive at both levels and apart from the opportunity to win representative medals, track races  are good days out  with the feel -good factor of  being part of a team and cheering on fellow club members.”

Finally a special word of thanks to our competition secretary Pat Murphy for taking care of the entries as always.

Neil

 

Congratulations to all members who ran in the Cork City Marathon on Sunday. The club had a large representation across the Full, Half and Relay events. Conditions weren’t ideal on the day with the weather being quite warm and windy on various parts of the course.

In the full marathon, according to the provisional results, Eagle had 14 members taking part. Vivian Foley led the crew home when finishing in a hugely impressive 10th place overall in a time of 2.44.16. Viv was also 1st M45 home on the day.

Andrew O’Farrell too won his age category finishing 1st M65 in a great time of 3.43.44. Dan Kelleher completed his first marathon in 3.41.59 – Congrats Dan. A word for John Swanton too who decided to sign up for the 26.2 miles on Saturday, less than 24 hours before the start of the race!!

In the half marathon Tom Fox was the first Eagle AC member to cross the finish line in a time of 1.26.38. This time ensured a category win for Tom. Martin Leahy also secured a 1st place finish in his category when he finished in 1.28.53.

Frances O’Connor was 2nd in her F60 category also. Catherine Murphy, continued her brilliant form so far this year, leading the Eagle ladies home in 1.31.13, a big PB for Catherine.

Aswell as those racing in the half we had a large number of members acting as pacers for the race, helping many runners achieve their goals on the day.

In the relay event the club entered one mixed team which finished in an impressive 8th place out of 400 mixed teams. (3.17.20) They also finished in 26th place overall out of 623 teams. Well done to Ruairi O Callaghan, Ken Higgs, Sandra Manning, Michelle Traynor and Anne Lucey Murphy. Thanks to Damian and to Karen for organising the relay team.

Results listed below are provisional. Some members did not seem to be listed as Eagle in official results. If your result is missing please send Mairead an email and your result will be added.

Full Marathon Results

10. Vivian Foley 2.44.16 M 45 1 M 10
58. Mark Murphy 3.09.40 M 40 13 M 55
125. Christopher Bristow 3.25.04 M 30 16 M 116
128. Darren Casey 3.26.01 M 40 28 M 119
143. John Sheehan 3.28.01 M 50 12 M 131
210. Gregg Moore 3.37.06 M 45 26 M 192
217. Denis Carroll 3.38.08 M 55 5 M 198
246. Dan Kelleher 3.41.59 M 40 58 M 225
247. Siobhan Holland 3.41.51 F 40 4 F 22
261. Andrew O’Farrell 3.43.44 M 65 1 M 238
282. Charlie Byrd 3.45.01 M 50 22 M 259
301. Eddie Trindle 3.47.08 M 40 72 M 275
483. Niall McSweeney 4.02.07 M 35 79 M 418
597. John Swanton 4.14.50 M 35 98 M 505

Half Marathon Results

48. Tom Fox 1.26.38 M50 1 M 46
67. Damian Geraghty 1.28.09 M30 14 M 16
79. Martin Leahy 1.28.53 M55 1 M 71
85. David O’Keeffe 1.29.12 M 40 20 M 76
86. Alan O’Brien 1.29.23 M 35 18 M 77
98. Vincent O’Sullivan 1.30.29 M 40 25 M 89
106. Catherine Murphy 1.31.13 F 40 5 F 11
181. Jason Crosbie 1.35.10 M 30 31 M 163
309. Adrian O’Sullivan 1.39.17 M 40 59 M 281
364. Derry Casey 1.41.39 M 45 49 M 327
393. Ken Nyhan 1.41.55 M 40 76 M 356
404. Gary Gibbons 1.42.48 M 45 59 M 367
444. Derek Costello 1.42.51 M 50 21 M 400
528. Richard Hawkins 1.44.59 M 50 27 M 465
592. Helen Cronin 1.47.02 F 35 12 F 72
593. Gillian Murphy 1.47.28 F 40 15 F 73
594. Karen Bevan 1.47.03 F 40 16 F 74
595. Michelle Cheung 1.47.02 SF 13 F 75
725. Ruairi Egan 1.49.36 M 50 41 M 622
750. Denis Looney 1.49.52 M 50 46 M 640
1065. Michael Noonan 1.57.08 M 35 175 M 842
1154. Frances O’Connor 1.58.10 F 60 2 F 249
1199. Olivia Holmes 1.58.37 F 40 73 F 269
1237. Catherine McCarthy 1.59.14 F 45 33 F 278
1270. Ed Fitzgerald 1.59.31 M 45 146 M 975
1492. Joaquim Rachao 2.02.55 M 60 15 M 1091
1693. John McCarthy 2.08.35 M 40 240 M 1193
1714. Ber Looney 2.08.28 F 45 67 F 513
1761. Conn Donovan 2.09.34 M 30 173 M 1225
1764. Tracy Cotter 2.09.34 F 35 92 F 538

Relay Results

26. Eagle AC 3.17.20 Mixed 8 of 400, 26 of 623

 

(Photos thanks to Mick Dooley and Joe Murphy)

 

 

A number of club members headed to Rosscarbery on Saturday  for some ‘surf’ , ‘turf’ and ‘tar’!  We had 9 members take part in the half marathon, with 2 members running in the 10k. They were tough but very enjoyable and well organised runs.

Congrats to Karen Bevan who picked up a category prize for 1st F40 in the half.

Special mention to member Michelle Traynor also who had her first official race for Eagle AC at the run. Great to see Derek Costello and Dolores Gibbons having great runs too having both been out of action over recent months with injuries. They are both well on the mend now! Well done to all who took part on the day. No clubs listed in results but all those spotted are listed below. Please let us know if we’ve missed anyone.

Half Marathon Results

30.Gary Gibbons M45 1.45.20
32.Karen Bevan F40 1.45.29
42.Derek Costello M50 1.47.42
51.Olga O’Sullivan F40 1.49.57
56.Denis Carroll M55 1.50.29
61.Elaine Guinane F40 1.51.31
63.Michelle Traynor F40 1.52.09
67.Helen Cronin F35 1.53.08
81.Mairead Lonergan SF 1.55.11

10K Results

60.Eddie Trindle M40 51.13
144.Dolores Gibbons F45 57.01

Well done to all who took part in the Cheetah Run 2019 at Fota Wildlife Park tonight . A massive thank you to the many club members who volunteered their time to make the night a great success. Even the rain stayed away!! See results here:

https://www.myrunresults.com/events/cheetah_run_2019/3079/results

 

 

 

 

There were plenty of club members in action on Sunday in The Great Railway Run. Special mention to Alan O’Brien who won the 10k race in a time of 34.07 and to Derek O’Keeffe who finished 3rd in 37.53. Ken Higgs was first M65 home and Frances O’Connor was first F60.

 

 

In the 25k Tony Cambridge finished in a brilliant 5th place overall in a time of 1.40.03. Andrew O’Farrell also picked up a prize for finishing 1st M65.

Please let us know if we are missing anyone below as club names were not included in the results.

 

Railway Run 25K Results

Report by Ruairi Egan

Photos by Derek Costello

The annual Mallow 10 mile was the big race of the weekend and was well supported by Eagles with 34 making the trip. In near perfect weather conditions, some great times & PBs were recorded.

Leading home the Eagle challenge was Alan O’Brien running an incredible PB time of 52’41, placing 5th overall out of 1,500 runners and winning his M35 category.

Next back was Damian Kenneally, also with a PB and Mark Smith was the 3rd Eagle. Karen Bevan was our first lady home, smashing through the 70 minute mark for the first time with a very impressive 69.32, well done to Karen.

 

Apart from Alan, we had Eagles win the M50 and M70 categories, Tony Cambridge & Richard Piotrowski respectively, and Tom Fox took 2nd M50.

Well done to everyone, full details below. Hard luck to those who planned to make it but got injured along the way. Nice to see a few members out on the route supporting as well, always a great help when the going gets tough.
Finally, a couple of members used the race to pace clubmates to target times and it’s great to see that happening. We used to have a “Race buddy” system some years back and it’s worth keeping in mind if there’s a race that you might not be targeting where you could help out another member. So well done to Mark & Darren for their successful outings as “unofficial” pacers.

Results:

37 Eagle AC members took part in this year’s County Road Championships on what was a very successful day for the club.

8 members took part in the women’s race with Annemarie Power leading the team home in a great time of  26.03. Annemarie’s run earned her a silver medal in the F45 category. Karen Bevan won her first County Roads medal when finishing 3rd F40 and Anne Lucey Murphy also picked up a medal when finishing 2nd F60.

In the men’s race 29 members took part. Alan O Brien was 2nd home overall in a time of 20.06. He was followed soon after by Mark Smith who was 4th to cross the line in 20.41.

Plenty of individual medals were won in the men’s race. Alan picked up medals for 2nd masters and 2nd M35. Damian Kenneally won a bronze novice medal. Mark Smith picked up gold in the M40 category. In the M50 category Pat O’Connor won silver with Tom Fox taking bronze. Pat Twomey claimed silver in the M65 category with Richard Piotrowski winning gold in the M70 category.

More good news on the team front with the men picking up gold in both the M35 and M50  team categories. Alan O’Brien, Mark Smith, Damian Kenneally and Mark Murphy were the scoring members of the M35 team with Pat O’Connor, Tom Fox and Tony Cambridge scoring for the M50 team.

As well as the medal winning performances there were plenty of other great runs from Eagle AC members on the day. Lots of PB’S! It was also great to see club members who have been out of action in recent months due to injury back running and wearing the Eagle AC singlet again- great to see Tracy Cotter, Colin O’Herlihy and Ray Harrington back in action!

Overall, a very successful day for the club and great to see such a large turnout representing Eagle AC.

 

Results 

7. Anne Marie Power F45/Nov 26.03
14. Karen Bevan F40/Nov 27.06
19. Elaine Guinane F40/Nov 27.43
27. Helen Cronin F35/Nov 28.50
29. Olga O’Sullivan F40/Nov 29.09
31. Mairead Lonergan Nov 29.17
40. Tracy Cotter F35/Nov 31.07
60. Anne Lucey Murphy F60 37.31

Novice Womens Team

4. Eagle AC (5,12,17,26) 60 Points

Masters Women F35 Team

4. Eagle AC (5,10,15,23) 53 Points

2. Alan O’Brien M35 20.16
4. Mark Smith M40 20.41
7. Damian Kenneally M35/Nov 21.22
29. Pat O’Connor M50/Nov 23.42
30. Mark Murphy M35/NoV 23.44
32. Mike Forde M35/Nov 23.50
33. Tom Fox M50/Nov 23.52
36. Tony Cambridge M50/Nov 24.06
38. Darren Casey M40/Nov 24.16
53. John Dunphy M50/Nov 25.45
64. Ruairi Egan M50 26.32
65. Finbarr Lehane M45 26.34
68. Ray Harrington M40/Nov 26.43
69. Ian Roche M40 26.46
70. Michael O’Connor M35 26.49
77. Richard Piotrowski M70 27.30
83. Denis Carroll M55/Nov 28.31
85. Pat Twomey M65 28.41
86. Joe Murphy M60 28.49
87. Ken Nyhan M40 28.52
90. Charlie Byrd M50 28.58
91. John Swanton M35 29.09
92. Colin O’Herlihy M45 29.10
99. Tony Merritt M50 29.26
102. Andrew O’Farrell M65 29.32
104. Eddie Trindle M40 29.37
105. Denis Looney M50 30.13
106. Ken Higgs M65 30.22
107. Pat Murphy M60 30.27

Novice Mens Team

4. Eagle AC (3,21,22,23) 69 Points

Masters Men M35 Team

1. Eagle AC (2,4,6,23) 35 Points

Masters Men M50 Team

1. Eagle AC (22,26,29) 77 Points

Report written by Neil Kingston

Three Eagles represented the club at the National Indoor Masters Track and Field Championships in Athone on Sunday and came away with five medals – 2 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze.

Results summary:

Hugh McSweeney – M70 1st 60m 9.29; 200m 1st 31.27
Ken Higgs – M65 200m 3rd 31.58; 400m 2nd 1:09.65; 800m 4th 2:56.71
Neil Kingston – M45 400m 4th 58.17; 800m 3rd 2:11.67

When you arrive inside the arena in Athlone you can see the venue is
top class, when you run on the track you can tell why such fast
times are being run there so it was a great experience to race on it.
I wonder what times my childhood hero Eamonn Coghlan the “Chairman of
the Boards” himself would have run for the mile on a track like that.

First of the Eagles to go on the day, Hugh looked the part as he got
himself set in the blocks for the 60. After pushing his main rival
right to the line for the Munster title in Nenagh recently the rematch
was on and the tension was high. As we so often see in the Olympics
and Diamond League, and especially in the 60m indoor competitions,
every millisecond counts in the short sprints and a good start from
the blocks is essential. The atmosphere in the arena was one of high
drama as Hugh’s rival false started and was disqualified.

At the ripe young age of 69, Ken ran his age in seconds the 400 and took the silver medal. He didn’t believe me when I told him that this is quite an extraordinary
achievement so well done Ken. Think about it, how many 50 years olds
can run 50 seconds or 80 year olds can run 80 seconds? See more here
http:www.speedendurance.com/2013/09/17/the-400-meters-run-your-age-club

For myself, this was another great learning experience in my second
year racing track and first time racing an 800 indoors. While I didn’t
match my medal haul from the national outdoors in Tullamore last
August I was more than happy to run 2 PBs on the day. There was some
drama in my own events as there was a question over residency and
eligibility for national medals of another runner. So having finished
in 4th and 5th place in the 800m and 400m races, I ended up being
bumped up a position in both races, and I have the 800m bronze to
prove it!

I ran a half marathon in December and a 60m sprint in February so in the last
few months I have experienced almost the full range of distances….for
me there is nothing that compares with racing the 400 and 800 indoors,
apart from the 400 and 800 outdoors 🙂 I definitely think the short
sprints are a lot of fun… if you are more of the endurance type and
fancy trying something just a little shorter and quicker than a 5k,
I’d imagine it would be a great experience to run a 3k on the boards
without having to contend with wind, rain and cold!

So that’s the end of the indoor season on the domestic front and
Hugh’s two wins put him clearly top of the club medals table this
year. Hugh still has the World Championships to look forward to in
Poland later this month! Best of luck to you there Hugh, no doubt
you’ll don the Irish vest with pride.