On Friday the 28th February, the Cork City Sports Athletics Person Of The Year Awards for 2019 were held at The River Lee.  There was strong competition for this years award from Stephanie Cotter who won  bronze at the women’s U23 race at European Cross Country Championships, in Lisbon, leading the Irish team to the second place, Aoife Cooke of Eagle AC won the Irish Senior Title at the Dublin City Marathon in an impressive time of 2:32:34 and Michelle Finn of Leevale AC, who competed at World Track and Field championships  in Doha, she had also set a new Irish 2000m Steeplechase record of 6 min 16.67 secs and produced a new championship best time when winning the Irish senior title at Morton Stadium. 

The award for Cork City Sports Athletics Person Of The Year went to Darragh McElhinney of Bantry AC. During 2019 Darragh took bronze in the 5000m at the European U20 Championships, which were held in Boras, Sweden. He became the first Irish athlete in 28 years to capture a long-distance medal at the U20 European Championships and the third overall in the 5,000m.  During the year he also set a new national junior 5000m record of 13:54.10 at the Flanders Cup in Belgium as well as setting a new Munster schools senior boys 1500m record of 3:49.42 in very blustery conditions.

The Cork City Sports Athletics Person Of The Year is sponsored by, The Echo, Cork’s 96 and C013FM and The River Lee Hotel.