John Walshe
Emma Murphy won her third road race in a row while veteran Noel Berkeley showed he is still a force to be reckoned with as the Greenville 5km brought the curtain down on what has been a hectic five months of evening events.
Since the Ballintotis four-miler in April, over 30 mid-week races have taken place throughout Cork with record turnouts the norm as the running boom shows no signs of abating.
This new event at Carrigtwohill was in aid of the Cork Association for Autism and attracted 260 competitors in ideal conditions.
For Murphy, of the St Finbarr’s club, it was her third victory in succession having won last Wednesday night at Ballincollig to add to her Rout2Crook first place the week before.
Once again, the women’s race was very competitive with very little between Murphy and the Eagle pair of Niamh Roe and Ann-Marie Holland before the Barr’s runner kicked for home, her time of 18:32 giving her 13 seconds to spare over Roe.
“The course was tough enough with the hills, I’ll probably now do the Charleville Half-Marathon in two weeks time,” said the winner, a former tennis international who played professionally for a year on the American circuit.
Berkeley – who will be 48 in November- is no stranger to victories on the east Cork roads and he had an easier passage as his 16:17 gave him a half-minute to spare over Alan Kelleher of the East Cork club who also plays hurling with Dungourney.
“The idea of running the race was firstly to make people aware of the work of the Cork Association for Autism and also to help those who live here in Greenville to integrate better into society,” said Louise O’Sullivan, Fundraiser Manger with the association and organiser of the event.
Results
1 N Berkeley (DSD, M45) 16:17; 2 K Kelleher (East Cork) 16:47; 3 C Tierney (East Cork) 17:15; 4 M Keane (unatt, M45) 17:22; 5 K O’Sullivan (St Finbarrs, M40) 17:26; 6 J Herlihy (Riocht) 17:28; 7 A O’Shea (unatt) 17:31; 8 M Dalton (Midleton) 17:37; 9 R Power (Leevale) 17:53; 10 S O’Malley (unatt) 18:00.
M40: 2 J Dunphy (Eagle) 18:53; 3 K Mulcahy (Midleton) 19:01.
M45: 3 K Fraher (unatt) 18:20.
M50: 1 J Collins (Leevale) 18:14; 2 D Leddingham (Youghal) 21:52; 3 M Power (unatt) 21:57.
M55: 1 T Cody (Midleton) 18:59; 2 N Aherne (Midleton) 19:58; 3 G O’Connor (Eagle) 22:05.
M60: 1 J O’Halloran (Midleton) 21:51; 2 J Murray (Rising Sun) 22:16; 3 J O’Leary (Leevale) 23:38.
Women: 1 E Murphy (St Finbarrs) 18:32; 2 N Roe (Eagle) 18:45; 3 A-M Holland (Eagle) 18:50; 4 V Vaughan (St Finbarrs) 19:05; 5 A-M Power (Eagle) 19:57; 6 E Murphy (St Finbarrrs) 20:03.
F40: 1 A Doris (Midleton) 21:19; 2 M Jones (Midleton) 22:02; 3 B Cahill (Midleton) 22:12.
F45: 1 H Gilroy (Midleton) 21:24; 2 S Drennan (Midleton) 21:44; 3 M O’Keeffe (Midleton) 22:34.
F50: 1 A Stavrou (St Finbarrs) 25:26; 2 M Mulcahy (St Finbarrs) 26:46; 3 S Pearson (Midleton) 27:04.
F55: 1 M Beausang (Midleton) 29:57; 2 K O’Connell (Midleton) 31:23.
M60: 1 K O’Brien (East Cork) 24:45; 2 M Barry (Midleton) 26:46.
