Michelle Kenny and Darragh Mulcahy, both winners at the Pfizer six-mile road race

Darragh Mulcahy, representing the host company, transferred his track form to the road with a clear victory at the annual Pfizer six-mile road race (Cork BHAA) while Michelle Kenny notched up another victory in the women’s section.

Mulcahy, who does his club running with St Finbarr’s, was part of a group of five on the outward journey of the out and back course but with a mile to go he pushed on to cross the line first in a time of 31:31. 

His club colleague, Barry Twohig, won the battle for second (31:45) with Conor McAuley taking third spot in 32:01.

The previous Saturday, Mulcahy had run a personal best of 4:00.82 for 1500m at the Irish Milers Club meet at Morton Stadium in Dublin. 

This was almost five seconds faster than he has run before and it augurs well for the remainder of the track season, as he explained.

“I was happy out with that, going up I didn’t know where I was at with no track in Cork, so I was delighted. 

"I suppose the goal for the year now is to break four minutes so I hope run a few 800m races but the 1500m is definitely the goal distance.” Michelle Kenny had won last year’s race in 36:33 and was four seconds faster on this occasion, her winning margin over runner-up Linda O’Sullivan amounting to almost three minutes with Joyce Wolfe taking third spot.

“I said I’d try and come back and improve on my time from last year, it’s a course that has everything, uphill and downhill and there’s always a huge turnout,” said Kenny, who was running for the Dept of Education.

“I set personal bests in all the races I did last year so I’m hoping to do the same this summer. 

"I will now go back to a block of training for a few weeks and hopefully pull out a few PBs by the end of the year.” 

 This is now the oldest race of the Cork BHAA calendar which this year saw over 350 finishers. 

First held on a warm Sunday in July 1983, the 53 runners on that occasion were led home by Donal Burke of Cork County Council and apart from Covid it has has continued ever since over the rarely-used distance nowadays of six miles.

Results:

Men:

1 D Mulcahy (Pfizer) 31:31; 2 B Twohig (Emerald Fencing, M40) 31:45; 3 C McAuley (Apple, M40) 32:01; 4 T O’Sullivan (temp-reg) 32:14; 5 D Coakley (Gilead Sciences) 32:20; 6 K Ince (Stryker, M40) 34:02.

Team: (Grade A) 1 Apple 45; 2 Pfizer 144; 3 Stryker 151. (Grade B) Dell Technologies 138; 2 Musgrave 149; 3 UCC 180. (Grade C) 1 Eli Lilly 248; 2 Cork University Hospital 260; 3 Biomarin 269.

Women:

1 M Kenny (Dept of Educ, F40) 36:29; 2 L O’Sullivan (temp-reg) 39:27; 3 J Wolfe (Joyce Wolfe Physiotherapy, F45) 39:31; 4 H Dunlea (Pfizer) 39:33; 5 L O’Connor (Musgrave, F45) 39:39; 6 O Hayes (Dept of Educ, F35) 40:26.

Team: (Grade A) 1 Dept of Education 80; 2 Sterling 249. (Grade B) 1 Fit4Life 294; 2 UCC 318. (Grade C) 1 Cork City Co 502; 2 Eli Lilly 525.