Four outstanding Cork female athletes have been honoured with Cork City Sports Athletics Person of the Month Award

Mon, 29 Jun, 2026 - 09:45

John Walshe

Four outstanding Cork female athletes have been honoured with Cork City Sports Athletics Person of the Month Awards, now presented on a quarterly basis at the River Lee Hotel.

February -

Maeve O'Neill from the Doheny club in Dunmanway received the February award for producing a remarkable breakthrough performance. Competing at the prestigious Battle of Boston meeting in the US, the Providence College junior set a new Irish women's indoor 800m record of 2:00.33.

That performance moved her into the top-ten on the NCAA all-time indoors list and also qualified her for the World Indoor Championships in Poland where she reached the semi-finals.

Pictured is Ray Shanahan, Cork City Sports Chairperson presenting the March Award to Meabh Corkery, Midleton AC, also included are, Grace Lynch, C103, Caitlin O'Callaghan, Cork's 96 FM, Donal Murnane, Mark Walk, both Cork City Sports, George Duggan, Cork Crystal, Gabriella Favory, The River Lee Hotel, Mary Riordan, The Echo and Frank Walley, Cork City Sports President, at the presentation of the Cork City Sports Athlete of the Month Awards for February, March, April and May 2026, at The River Lee Hotel, Cork.

A week after her Irish record, O’Neill raced to gold at the 2026 Big East Indoor Championships in Chicago where she showed her class in winning the women’s 800m in a Big East record time of 2:01.15.

Her form continued outdoors where she recorded a personal 800m best of 2:00.72 in Lexington, Kentucky. With two gold medals, O’Neill was also the star at the Big East championships held at the University of Connecticut, gaining her the Most Outstanding Female Performance at the meet.

There, the 22-year-old powered to gold in the 800m, winning in a new school record time of 2:02.05. This was also a meet and facility record. Maeve then helped Providence win the 4x800m relay championship in a time of 8:30.87, again, a meet and a facility record.

Maeve's achievement has brought great pride to her club, her family, and Irish athletics, while also providing inspiration to young athletes across the country.

Attending the presentation at the River Lee hotel were her parents Anna – still a regular winner in local road races – and Tony, along with her aunt May Crowley.

March -

Meabh Corkery of Midleton AC completed a unique triple of indoor pole vault national championships victories within the month of March.

First up was the National Senior Championships where Meabh set a personal best of 3.65m in taking the senior title for the second year in a row, a performance which saw her top the indoor rankings for the season.

Two weeks later she took the National Junior title with a championship best performance of 3.61m. Meabh completed the month with another championship record when winning the Under 19 girls national title.

Having just completed her Leaving Cert at St Mary’s High School, Midleton, the 18-year-old cleared a height of 3.41m earlier this month which places her third on this year’s outdoor list.

April -

Gabriella Bowen, a student at MTU, produced a lifetime best of 5.80m to snatch a dramatic victory in the last round of the long jump competition at the Irish Universities Championships.

Pictured is Ray Shanahan, Cork City Sports Chairperson presenting the February Award to Maeve O'Neill, Doheny AC, also included are, Frank Walley, Cork City Sports President, Mary Riordan, The Echo, Mark Walk, Cork City Sports, Gabriella Favory, The River Lee Hotel, George Duggan, Cork Crystal, Grace Lynch, C 103, Donal Murnane, Cork City Sports and Caitlin O'Callaghan, Cork's 96 FM, at the presentation of the Cork City Sports Athlete of the Month Awards for February, March, April and May 2026, at The River Lee Hotel, Cork.

Competing at her home venue at the MTU complex, the Leevale athlete’s performance secured maximum points for the MTU team that finished fourth in the overall women’s team standings - a best ever for the university.

Sitting in fourth place going into her sixth and final jump, the Kinsale native jumped a massive a personal best to take the gold in front of a big home crowd.

May -

Niamh Allen from the Leevale club produced another world class performance in securing a tremendous sixth place at the European 10,000m Cup at La Spezia in Italy.

Competing in her first-ever track 10,000m, Allen recorded 32:15.79. In doing so she led the Irish team of Fiona Everard from Bandon and Sorcha Nic Dhomhnail (West Limerick) to the silver medal position in the team race, claiming only Ireland’s second-ever medal in the history of the event.

Allen’s time of 32:15.79 and Everard’s 32:41.28 are also the leading 10,000m performances by Irish athletes so far in 2026.

Earlier in May, Allen had set a course record of 25:10 at the Midleton five-mile race which placed her third overall of the near-400 finishers. The time was also 21 seconds faster than last year when she created history when winning the race outright.

The Cork City Sports Athletics Person of the Month Awards are sponsored by the River Lee, Cork’s 96FM & C103FM, The Echo, Cork Crystal and Leisureworld.

Pictured is Frank Walley, Cork City Sports President presenting the April Award to Gabriella Bowen, MTU, also included are, Donal Murnane, Cork City Sports, Gabriella Favory, The River Lee Hotel, Mary Riordan, The Echo, Mark Walk, Cork City Sports, George Duggan, Cork Crystal, Ray Shanahan, Cork City Sports Chairperson, Caitlin O'Callaghan, Cork's 96FM and Grace Lynch, C103, at the presentation of the Cork City Sports Athlete of the Month Awards for February, March, April and May 2026, at The River Lee Hotel, Cork.

This year’s Cork City Sports – now World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze Event – take place on Wednesday July 8 at the MTU Athletics Stadium at Bishopstown