Report by Richard Hawkins
Super Silver for Carraig na bhFear AC!
Last weekend was the culmination of the domestic Track and Field season in Ireland with the hosting of the 153rd National Senior Championships in Santry. The best of Irish talent was on show with some world class racing. Carraig na bhFear AC won a super silver in the Senior Mixed 4x400m relay behind a class UCD team in a fast time of 3:39:37. Ciaran Nugent ran a super opening leg which established a gap which was maintained in subsequent legs by Orla Coffey, Ruaidhri Boyle and Katie Walsh. Fantastic to see the successful quartet in action as they have been competing together for many years. Huge credit goes to Ciaran Nugent, less than an hour earlier Ciaran was disqualified from his specialist 400m hurdles final for a false start but he managed to put the disappointment behind him and channel it into a superb effort for his team.
On Day 1 of the Championships Aoife martin (28.15.97) and Anna Mullins (29.43.93) finished in 8th and 11th places respectively in a competitive Senior women’s 5K Racewalking final. Won by Kate Veale for a record 19th time, the Carraig Na BhFear AC athletes distinguished themselves well at the highest level.
Other News:
Faye O’Riordan was part of the Irish Skyrunning team for the 2025 Youth world champs held in the Gran Sasso ski resort in the Apennine Mountains in Italy where 30 countries took part. Faye had two races, the first race on the Friday was a Vertical K, 1000 meters of elevation over a 3.8 kilometres distance, a hard uphill race, Faye placed 16th out of a field of 32 runners. Her second race was on Sunday, a 9.8 kilometre run with 850m of elevation was an up and down race with under 6 kilometres of downhill running that suited Faye, she improved her position coming in 13th place in the same field of runners. The definition of Skyrunning is running in the mountains above 2,000m altitude where the incline is over 30%. Another great chapter to add to Faye’s’ travels with the Irish Mountain Running Team!
Tadhg Crowley timed a holiday in West Cork to perfection as it coincided with the Adrigole 5-mile Road-Race, predictably a tough, hilly course but Tadhg delivered an excellent run of 31.06 to finish 2nd overall! In contrast, the Kinsale 5-mile course is fast with a downhill start, it was extremely competitive with the first two finishers running under 25 minutes, in total there were 738 finishers on a beautiful evening for running. Timmy Hawkins ran a new pb time of 26.14 to finish 8th overall and picked up a prize for 3rd Male U40, Brian Hawkins also pb’d with a 25th place finish in 28.09.
On Wednesday 6th, the BHAA Sterling 5k in Ringaskiddy was a happy hunting ground for our members with lots of prizes picked up. Timmy Hawkins made light of the hilly course for a convincing 2nd place overall in 16.21 with Brian Hawkins (17:42) finishing in 10th place. Tadhg Crowley (17:59) was 2nd in age category, Richard Hawkins (20:23) placed 3rd in category and Siobhan Walsh (22:53) had an excellent run to finish 2nd in category.
Look ahead:
The next club target is the East Cork track 5K Championships in MTU on Wednesday 27th August at 8pm
