Cork City AC duo of Ben O’Reilly and Emma Desmond win the Cloyne 4km Challenge
Rebecca McEvoy, women's winner of the Cloyne 4km Series, pictured with Esther Gerrard, Treasurer, Cloyne Community Council, and sponsors Dave Cahill (Cloyne Centra), Kerri Reilly (The Rock Bar); Edward Griffin (Dent Dale). Picture: John Walshe
Another successful Cloyne 4km Challenge Series came to a close with individual victories going to the Cork City AC duo of Ben O’Reilly and Emma Desmond while the overall titles saw Paul Cashman (Watergrasshill) and Rebecca McEvoy (St Finbarr’s) come out on top.
McEvoy had taken the overall honours two years ago and this time was well clear going into the last day, having won the previous four races with a best of 14:46 from the December event.
“I have actually been sick for the last two or three weeks, but I’m glad I came down and I really enjoyed it,” said the St Finbarr’s athlete.
“I really enjoy the whole Series, you have a goal every month and it keeps you going as it’s hard during the winter to have motivation and I find it really helps me to run well in the summer.”
For men’s champion Cashman – who finished just 12 seconds clear of November winner James Grufferty - it was his first time taking overall honours.
“I’m absolutely delighted; it’s such a great Series.
"I haven’t done it now for a couple of years but it’s great to keep you going over the winter.”
Now in it’s 11th year, having started off back in November 2014, the Series comprises of five races from November to March.
It’s somewhat of a throwback to an earlier era of running events in that there are no pre-entries, no chip timing and the entry fee is a very modest €5 per race.
What’s also remarkable is that those organising it – a sub-committee of Cloyne District Community Council – had virtually no experience of such events before they commenced.
Now, they can take entries from over 300 runners on a Sunday morning, have the race go off over the accurate four kilometre loop on schedule at 9.30am with the full results available on various sites that afternoon.
Tommy Hartnett has been there from the start and he has used his vast experience of the Ballycotton races in getting the venture off the ground.
“There is now a committee of around 20 members and all are community people, and they learned as they went along,” he explains.
“The fact we can run it so cheaply is because we don’t give prizes on the day, only overall awards with a T-shirt to those running four of the five races.
"People just want to go and run, come along and pay €5, and then go home afterwards.”
It’s a simple but highly-efficient operation and in this age of spiraling race entry fees it’s something that a lot of other communities could certainly aspire to.
1 B O’Reilly (Cork City, MJ) 13:29; 2 P Cashman (Watergrasshill, M45) 13:44; 3 A Davis (Leevale, M45) 13:47; 4 J Grufferty (Glamire, M40) 13:54; 5 S McSweeney (Grange-Fermoy, M50) 13:55; 6 S O’Brien (East Cork, M40) 13:55.
1 E Desmond (Cork City, F35) 14:38; 2 S Cronin (Midleton, FJ) 15:09; 3 K Hennessy (Midleton, FJ) 15:41; 4 N McCarthy (unatt) 16:47; 5 A Keane (unatt, FJ) 16:50; 6 A_M Quirke (St Nicholas) 16:53.
1 Paul Cashman (Watergrasshill, M45) 54:02 2 James Grufferty (Glanmire, M40) 54:14 3 Michael O’Mahony-Walsh (St Nicholas, MJ) 56:43 Junior: Oisin Murray (unatt) 60:00.
1 Rebecca McEvoy (St Finbarrs) 59:40 2 Katie Hennessy (Midleton, FJ) 62:35 3 Sadhbh Cronin Midleton, FJ) 62:49.
Ella Cusack (unatt) 74:37.
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