Sarah Collins (Providence College) with roots in Douglas, Bishopstown and Kinsale wins the December award for the Cork Athletic Person of the Month. On Saturday December 7th running in one of her first indoor races ever Sarah set a new Irish and European Junior Indoor 5000m record with a time of 15:41.00 at the Boston University Season Opener. This is also the 4th fastest indoor time ever by an Irish woman behind only Sonia O’Sullivan, Mary Cullen and Maria Davenport and betters her outdoor record over the same distance set last summer. Sarah now has a ‘B’ qualifying standard time for next summer’s European Senior Track and Field Championships. These championships are being held in Zurich, Switzerland where incidentally her parents are based on work assignment in Basle.

Sarah’s 3000m personal best is 9:26.93 set at World Junior Champs in Barcelona in 2012 and coincidentally her 2013 best was also 9:26.93 set at Cork City Sports in July.

For good measure a week before her award winning 5000m performance Sarah was a scoring member of the Providence College team that won the highly competitive NCAA cross country championship. Sarah’s participation at the Cork City Sports on Tuesday July 8th will be looked forward to with great anticipation where she will no doubt improve on her 5th place finish at last years meet.