East Cork athlete Frank O’Brien shows his class at Corkbeg four-mile race

TWO nights after running a personal best for 3,000m in the open race at the Cork City Sports, Frank O’Brien turned his attention to the road to notch up an easy victory at the Corkbeg four-mile road race near Whitegate.

The 21-year-old East Cork athlete had finished sixth in a competitive 3000m at the MTU, his time of 8:39.18 a big improvement on his previous best. 

Now a student at St Mary’s University in London, O’Brien has also set personal bests of 1:56.26 (800m) and 3:56.24 (1500m) this season and just missed out by one place of making the 1,500m final at the recent national senior championships.

Along with clubmate Nick O’Donoghue and Andy Sheehan of Clonakilty Road Runners, O’Brien had set the early pace before moving away for victory in a time of 20:30. 

Sheehan held on second in 20:45 with O’Donoghue – runner-up at Millstreet the previous week – having to settle for third in 22:01.

Finishing fourth in 21:21 was another East Cork athlete, Kenneth Kelleher, showing no after-affects of his brilliant marathon debut at Cork where the former Dungourney hurler, now in the M40 category, had finished eight in 2:35:41.

After finishing second in 2019, the last time the race was held, Niamh Cronin of St Finbarr’s moved up one place to win the women’s race at Corkbeg. 

Her time of 25:42 gave her a comfortable margin over local athlete Eileen Leahy from the Midleton club who recorded 27:05. Niamh O’Connor (East Cork) finished third, a further eight seconds back.

This was the 24th Corkbeg race, now known as the Robbie Steele Memorial event, and organised by East Cork AC. 

Originally a five-miler, the race moved to its current four-mile circuit a few years ago for safety reasons.

On the previous night, there was a Cork double at the 37th annual Coillte/Dundrum 10km in Tipperary.  Michael Harty (East Cork) recorded the second-fastest time on the course of 30:13 with Sinead O'Connor (Leevale) winning the women's race in 33:57.

Corkbeg results:

Men:

1 F O’Brien (East Cork) 20:30; 2 A Sheehan (Clonakilty RR) 20:45; 3 N O’Donoghue (East Cork) 22:01; 4 K Kelleher (East Cork, M40) 21:21; 5 D Coffey (Leevale) 21:23; 6 J Murphy (Leevale) 21:27.

M40: 2 T Twomey (Leevale) 22:42; 3 L Garel (St Finbarrs) 24:37.

M45: 1 M Corbett (St Finbarrs) 21:57; 2 P Cotter (Eagle) 23:43; 3 D Dorgan (Midleton) 24:13.

M50: 1 G O’Regan (Midleton) 25:02; 2 E McCarthy (Midleton) 25:19; 3 M Murphy (Midleton) 25:38.

M55: 1 C O’Connell (St Finbarrs) 22:52; 2 E Meade (East Cork) 25:23; 3 B O’Keeffe (St Catherines) 26:06.

M60: 1 E O’Sullivan (Midleton) 25:26; 2 M McGrath (Eagle) 26:53; 3 M Walsh (Midleton) 27:37.

M65: 1 J Power (Midleton) 30:12; 2 W O’Riordan (St Brendans) 30:17; 3 S O’Mahony (Youghal) 31:43.

M70: 1 D O’Connell (Midleton) 34:24; 2 J Walshe (RRC) 36:05; 3 D Condon (unatt) 45:00.

MJ: 1 J Kelleher (Midleton) 27:01; 2 L O’Connor (Midleton) 27:32; 3 D Callanan (Midleton) 30:14.

Women: 

1 N Cronin (St Finbarrs, F45) 25:42; 2 E Leahy (Midleton) 27:05; 3 N O’Connor (East Cork, F40) 27:13; 4 S Allcock (Ballymore-Cobh, F35) 27:28; 5 A Crowley (East Cork, F45) 27:34; 6 M O’Connor (unatt, FJ) 28:15.

F35: 2 B Lynch (St Catherines) 29:45; 3 R Higgins (Watergrasshill) 35:49.

F40: 2 D Aherne (Midleton) 28:25; 3 S Roche (MCDC) 30:03.

F45: 3 Y Fitzgerald (Midleton) 28:55.

F50: 1 C Troy (unatt) 33:12; 2 B Looney (Eagle) 35:11; 3 S Hogan (Midleton) 36:22.

F55: 1 M O’Mahony (Youghal) 31:42; 2 M Cotter (Tracton) 33:22; 3 S Bulman (Midleton) 40:21.

F60: 1 M McNamara (Midleton) 35:10; 2 M Mulcahy (St Finbarrs) 36:48; 3 J McCarthy (Midleton) 44:12.

FJ: 2 M Kelleher (unatt) 28:41.