Darragh Mulcahy and Holly Carroll are the winners at the John Buckley 5km road race
Darragh Mulcahy, winner of the John Buckley Sports 5km, receiving his prize from Conor Kavanagh. Also pictured is John Buckley. Picture: John Walshe
Traditionally, the biggest event on the Cork BHAA calendar, this year’s John Buckley Sports 5km again lived up to expectations with over 1,000 finishers, the biggest-ever for this promotion which has been on the go now for over 30 years.
Held on the usual Tuesday evening, this year a new course (mainly due to road works) also saw a high standard with the first 24 finishers breaking 16 minutes.
Two runners fresh from setting 1500m PBs on the track took the honours, with victories going to Darragh Mulcahy and Holly Carroll.
While Mulcahy – who ran his 4:00.82 at Santry - has also been to the fore on the road with a victory at the Pfizer six-mile, Carroll was somewhat of a surprise winner.
The 20-year-old Blarney-Inniscarra athlete set her 1500m best of 4:26.71 at Belfast earlier in the month and her time on the Marina course of 16:38 saw her cross the line with 20 seconds to spare over Sinead O’Connor, who was making a welcome return to competition.
“I was actually quite surprised to win as I’ve been racing mostly 1500m,” said the second-year student at UCC where she is coached by Donie Walsh.
“I went out fairly hard and then I felt comfortable and held the pace for the rest of the race.”
However, such are the Cork BHAA rules, as Carroll wasn’t registered it was O’Connor (Dept of Education) who received the first prize.
Michelle Kenny, also Dept of Education, maintained her consistent form to finish third in 17:31 with Nadine Forde (Cork UH) in fourth receiving the third prize.
The top three men were all inside 15 minutes with Mulcahy (Pfizer) first in 14:46 from Jeremiah Sheehan (Dept of Education), 14:51, and Shane Collins (Apple) 14:59.
“Eric Curran took it out for the first two kilometres and he kept it nice and honest, then Shane [Collins] took it up and over the last kilometre I had a small bit left and I was able to push on,” explained Mulcahy.
“It’s nice to have a win down here, if you talk to anyone in Cork about what race you are doing for the summer, everyone mentions the John Buckley 5km so it’s always a nice one to get.”
1 D Mulcahy (Pfizer) 14:46; 2 J Sheehan ((Dept of Educ) 14:51; 3 S Collins (Apple) 14:59; 4 C McCauley (Apple, M40) 15:05; 5 N Shanahan (Dept of Educ, M40) 15:06; 6 M Walsh (Dept of Educ) 15:12; 7 B Twohig (Emerald Fencing, M40) 15:14; 8 A Mannix (Dell Technologies) 15:15; 9 E Curran (Merck) 15:15; 10 D O’Leary (temp-reg) 15:15.
Team: (Grade A) 1 Dept of Education 13; 2 Apple 58; 3 Uisce Éireann 70. (Grade B) 1 Pfizer 424; 2 Gilead Sciences 451; 3 Cork University Hospital 513. (Grade C) 1 Dell Technologies 563; 2 MTU 722; 3 Merck 758.
1 H Carroll (temp-reg) 16:38; 2 S O’Connor (Dept of Educ, F35) 16:58; 3 M Kenny (Dept of Educ, F40) 17:31; 4 N Forde (CUH, F40) 17:37; 5 N Leduc (Avondhu MF) 17:51; 6 R McEvoy (Dept of Educ) 17:52; 7 C Hickey (unatt) 18:03; 8 S Hoare (Bon Secours, F45) 18:06.
Team: (Grade A) 1 Dept of Education 146; 2 Avondhu MF 254; 3 Cork University Hospital 309. (Grade B) 1 Janssen 792; 2 Complete Financial 834; 3 MTU 850. (Grade C) 1 PwC 992; 2 Mercy Hospital 1133; 3 UCC 1162.
App?
