Cork City Sports honour athletes for their performances in April, May and June

The quarterly Cork City Sports Athletics Person of the Month Awards brought the first half of year to a close with the three recipients honoured at the River Lee hotel.

April: 

Fearghal Curtin, a member of Youghal Athletic Club, produced two world class road running performances during the month of April.

On the 6th of the month he finished fifth in a field of nearly 20,000 competitors in the Berlin Half-Marathon, recoding a time of 61:12 which was just 15 seconds away from the Irish record. This was also a personal best by almost half-a-minute on his previous time achieved at Houston in January of 2024.

Three weeks after his Berlin effort, Curtin made his way back to Germany for the full marathon distance at Düsseldorf. There he finished fourth in a time of 2:11:35 which placed him 10th on the Irish all-time marathon rankings.

But that time doesn’t tell the full story as Curtin was ahead of fellow Irishman Peter Lynch until the closing stages. 

Kilkenny man Lynch went on to set an Irish record of 2:09:36, and no doubt when Curtin has a bit more experience over the distance he too is capable of a similar performance.

Fearghal’s award was accepted by his father Noel as the 26-year-old was unable to attend the function. He was on his way to Atlanta where he was competing in the iconic Peachtree Fourth of July 10km. There, in a race dominated by Kenyan runners, he finished a highly credible 14th in a time of 28:54.

May: 

The athlete of the month award of May goes to Caoimhe Flannery of Skibbereen AC and Skibbereen Community School. Throughout that month, Caoimhe produced a series of record breaking performances at her specialty event, the 1500m steeplechase.

On three occasions she bettered the existing records at the South Munster, Munster and Irish Schools championships in the senior girls 1500m steeplechase in virtually successive weeks.

From one championship to the next Caoimhe improved her time on each occasion, culminating with a comprehensive victory at the Irish Schools championship in Tullamore with a tremendous time of 4:56:02 At Munster level, her time of 4:57.73 improved the previous record by almost 10 seconds which had stood to Jessica Coyne from Limerick at 5:07.24 since 2014.

Between the two Munster deciders at MTU, she also recorded a personal best of 10:05.42 for the 3000m distance at the Irish Milers meeting at Clonmel.

“It’s a huge honour to receive this award, I don’t think I ever though I would win one of these,” said the 18-year-old at the ceremony. “It was such a good day at Tullamore, I really enjoyed it and it was very special to win as I think the Irish Schools is a really prestigious event.

“I’m going into my Leaving Cert year now so it will be challenging to juggle both running and school but I’m hoping to keep up the running and keep progressing.” 

In recent weeks Flannery has twice achieved the European U20 championship ‘B’ standard of 10:40 for the 3000m steeplechase and is now hopeful of making the Irish team for that event which takes place in Finland in early August.

JUNE: 

Sophie O'Sullivan (Ballymore-Cobh AC) is the Cork City Sports Athlete for the month of June. At the prestigious NCAA (American Collegiate) track and field championships held in Eugene, Oregon, Sophie produced a blistering 58.43 last 400m lap in the 1500m to take gold in a time of 4:07.94.

O’Sullivan, a final-year student at the University of Washington, is just the fifth Irish woman to have won gold at the event, following in the footsteps of her mother Sonia along with Rhasidat Adeleke, Valerie McGovern and Mary Cullen.

It was also the first national championship for a UW women’s runner since Katie Flood took the 1500m title back in 2012.

“I’d been in America for a long time, for five years now and I’ve had had a lot of fun and a lot of good memories, but it’s been up and down,” stated O’Sullivan after her win.

“I had never really won anything, to be honest, so it meant a lot to pull it all together.” Sophie’s famous mum Sonia was on hand to accept the award on her behalf and said it was great to see it all come together and for Sophie to get the win.

“She worked very hard for it, it was the very last race of her college career but sometimes it takes a long time to get to the top of the podium.

“She was determined and really wanted to achieve success for all the time and commitment that the university put into her, so it was fantastic.” The Cork City Sports Athletics Person of the Month and Yearly Awards are sponsored by the River Lee, 96&C103FM, The Echo, Cork Crystal and Leisureworld.