When the tall Australian Collis Birmingham led the charge over the line at the 62nd Cork City Sports last week a multitude of personal and seasonal best times followed in his wake. The 28 year old from Melbourne aggressively stormed to the front on the third lap to win impressively in 7 mins.47.97 secs. with no less than six athletes recording lifetime bests.

Leading American Hassan Mead was second in a pb. of 7:52.00  while the German Clemens Bleistein and Ferrybank’s Shane Quinn set sizeable lifetime best times. So did Midleton’s James McCarty more renowned for his road running exploits locally.

Seasonal bests were set by Britain’s Andy Vernon, Philip Pflieger from Germany and John Coghlan among others

Birmingham repeated his Cork victory by winning again later in the week from another world class field at Sotteville, France and is already aiming for three in a row in Cork next July.