The crowds turned out in force to support the 65th Cork City sports. Even the weather was kind, with the early morning rain making way for a glorious (if a little breezy) summer evening in Leeside.
There were five home wins in the main programme highlighted by Bandon’s Phil Healy in the women’s 100m in 11.52 seconds. The other Irish stars were Adam McMullen (Crusaders) in the long jump, Laura Crowe (An Riocht) in the 800m, Elizabeth Morland in the 100m hurdles and Alex Wright (Leevale) in the 3,000m race walk.
Phil Healy has been transitioning to 400m was delighted to step down in distance and win the 100m in a season’s best.
National long jump champion Adam McMullen continued his winning streak by winning in Bishoptsown with a best of 7.59m – 7cm further than his winning leap in Morton Stadium last weekend.
“I was pleased with that and the crowd was great this evening,” said McMullen who was jumping right in front of the main grandstand. “I wore my Irish vest to generate some extra support and it did the trick.”
Laura Crowe looked impressive in the women’s 800m as she held off Romania’s Mihaela Nunu to take victory in 2:05.73 to 2:06.06.
Multi-event rising star Elizabeth Morland’s season just keeps getting better and better – she won the 100m hurdles with a time of 13.68 seconds which was a World Junior A standard. The World Junior Athletics Championships take place in Poland next month where she will focus on the heptathlon.
Robert Heffernan always makes a point of attending Cork City Sports to perform in front of his home crowd, even is the 3k distance is to short for the 50K specialist. Robert finished second in 11:18.65 behind his training partner Alex Wright (Leevale) who won in 11:13.94. They have already departed for their training camp in Spain as they build towards the race walks at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro along with Brendan Boyce (Letterkenny) who was fourth in a new personal best of 11:34.06.
Ireland’s young distance stars also took full advantage of running in front of a supportive home crowd producing a host of qualifying times for underage events.
Togher’s National Junior Endurance coach Steven Macklin was casting his watchful eye and was pleased with the outcome. “It was another great night for Irish Junior Endurance athletes with five more qualifying standards for either European Youth or World Junior Championships.”
Leevale pair Charlie O’Donovan and Louise Shanahan shone brightest winning the junior men’s 1500m and junior women’s 800m. O’Donovan clocked a European Youth qualifier of 3:54.36 while Shanahan recorded a World Junior B qualifier of 2.08.99
The complete sports can be viewed on the Cork City Sports YouTube Channel
