Stephanie Cotter is on form Stateside with an impressive victory over 1500m

WEST Muskerry athlete Stephanie Cotter, who is on scholarship at Adams State University in Colorado, continued her good form Stateside with an impressive victory over 1500m at the RMAC Championships.

Held in gale force winds at an altitude of 4500 feet in Pueblo, the Coachford native took off on the last lap to cross the line in a time of 4:37.79 with Layla Almasri second in 4:38.84.

Two days before, Cotter ran a faster time of 4:29.60 at this Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference meet when winning her heat by a margin of almost eight seconds.

The 22-year-old is in her third year at Adams State University and in December 2019 won a bronze individual medal along with team silver in the U23 race at the European Cross-Country Championships in Lisbon. 

On that occasion, she teamed up with two Adams State athletes, sisters Eilish and Roisin Flanagan, to make it a memorable day for coach Damon Martin.

Also that season she was named as the NCAA Division II Women's Cross-Country National Athlete of the Year as a result of her record-breaking winning run at the NCAA Division II championships in Sacramento, California.

It has been a great few weeks for Cork athletes as following on from Aoife Cooke’s Olympic marathon qualifying time of 2:28:36 in Cheshire which saw the Eagle athlete move to fourth on the Irish all-time list, Bandon’s Phil Healy secured another Tokyo appearance as part of the Irish mixed relay team.

At the World Athletics Relays in Silesia, Poland, the 4 x 400m team of Chris O'Donnell, Healy, Sharlene Mawdsley, and Thomas Barr produced a stunning performance to finish third in their heat in a new Irish record of 3:16.84. 

This also qualified the team for the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Oregon.

Without Barr, the Irish finished seventh in the final, having already secured the main objective which was Olympic qualification. 

In the rarely-run 4 x 200m relay, the Irish women’s team of Aoife Lynch, Kate Doherty, Sarah Quinn, and Sophie Becker produced a magnificent performance to cross the line in second place in a new national record time of 1:35.93. 

Poland took first in 1:34.98 with Ecuador third in 1:36.86.

Another Irish record, this time for the U20 5000m, was set by Tullamore’s Laura Mooney at the Virginia Grand Prix in Charlottesville where she clocked a time of 16:19.43. 

A student at Providence College, Mooney’s time marginally improved on the 16:19.80 set by Sarah Collins in 2013.

Collins, who grew up in Douglas and who has Bishopstown and Kinsale connections, was also attending Providence at the time when she set the previous best.