Darragh McElhinney (Glengarriff and UCD AC) is the Cork City Sports Athlete of the Year for 2021. Darragh received the award at a ceremony in The River Lee Hotel on Friday May 13th.  

On a memorable day for Irish athletics, in front of a home crowd and huge support at the European Cross Country Championships in Dublin on the 12th of December, Darragh won a well deserved individual silver medal, in a thrilling Under 23 race. In the process, he led the Irish team to victory in the team contest for only the second time in the competitions history. 

Chairman Tony O’Connell stated that “Darragh was a very worthy winner of the Athlete Of The Year Award,  taking silver at a European Championships and leading an Irish team to victory on home soil was a very special achievement. All the more impressive when Darragh, a UCD student has based himself in Ireland while he continues to develop his athletics skills. The future looks incredibly bright for this young athlete, who we hope to see compete at this year’s Cork City Sports on July 5th.” 

The Cork City Sports Awards are sponsored by The River Lee Hotel, Cork’s 96FM and the Evening Echo.