POLE VAULT PERFORMANCE AT 2014 CORK CITY SPORTS HONOURED

By John Walshe (Evening Echo)

Zoe Brown Presentation - Pole Vault - Cork City Sports
Jim Alexander (third right) making the presentation to Liam O'Brien, Chairman of the Track Management Committee at Cork IT. Also pictured are Tony O'Connell, Chairman of Cork City Sports and Eamon Flanagan, Irish National Pole Vault Coach.
Picture: John Walshe

Amongst the many outstanding achievements at last summer’s Cork City Sports was the pole vault victory by Zoe Brown from Northern Ireland.

A week before achieving her personal best of 4.45m at Cardiff, Brown set a new Irish all-comers record of 4.42m when defeating a top-class international field.

Now, in honour of that performance, a framed montage showing her in action has been presented to the Cork IT where the meeting took place by Brown’s coach, Jim Alexander.

At the presentation in The Silver Springs Hotel, Alexander explained the reason for this gesture: “Cork was a very special event for both Zoe and myself, it was our first time to compete there and to have such a fantastic result where she defeated a field of international vaulters was important for her in the context of her season.

“So you could say we have a very soft spot for Cork in general and when the photographer who took the shots got in contact with us it sowed the seed in my mind that I’d really like to mark this special occasion,” said Alexander, who has been Brown’s coach for the past 15 years.

The pictures were taken by Dungaravn photographer Dan McGrath and Alexander got a series of four montages done – one for the City Sports arena, one for the Sports Institute of Northern Ireland where Brown was based, and the remaining two for both the athlete and himself.

“People are used to seeing the pole vault as one still shot so it’s nice to see a sequence of take-off, flight, bar clearance, etc and we were able to do that,” he added.

Having set five Northern Irish records during the year, Brown – who declared for Ireland in 2007 while based in Dublin - surprising retired from the sport at the end of the season. She now works as strength and conditioning coach at the Scottish Institute of Sport.

Alexander is also moving on from coaching as he takes up a new work appointment in China in the New Year. He recently received a Northern Ireland Athletics Awards for his 27 years service to coaching.

Receiving the presentation on behalf of Cork IT was Liam O’Brien, Chairman of the Track Management committee.

Also in attendance were Tony O’Connell, Chairman of the Cork City Sports, and Eamon Flanagan, Irish National Pole Vault Coach and who was the chief judge on the night of Brown’s memorable performance.

“It was a great idea for Jim to make contact with us and we now have a historical record at the Cork IT of Zoe’s achievement so we’re delighted with this gesture,” stated Tony O’Connell on behalf of the City Sports.