Cork City Sports July 1993

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Cork City Sports 1993

Michael Joyce

Irish Runner Magazine, Vol 13 No 5, August 1993

Irish Victory - Frank O'Mara Wins 5,000m

Cork City Sports

9 July

By Michael Joyce

Report (PDF file) - Irish Runner, Vol 13 No 5, August 1993

The Young and the Old: Eamonn CoghIan, Mark Carroll and Marcus O’Sullivan.

The annual Dairygold Cork City Sports were run on a fine but cold and windy night at the Mardyke. Like last year, there was a three way international match between Ireland, Russia and the Southern Counties of England. The match result seemed academic. Russia were the easy winners, mainly as a result of their dominance in the field events.

Most of the field events were held at the Regional track in the afternoon. One encouraging Irish performance there was that of Nick Sweeney in the discus, who once again threw over 60 metres for second place.

The main event on track was the Bord Gais Mile featuring local hero, Marcus O’Sullivan. The Sports Chairman, Ray Shanahan, was the rabbit in this event and the field passed the half way mark in 1:58.6. From there on, Marcus had to rely on all his great experience, determination and true grit to hold off Niall Bruton, Mark Carroll and Englishman, Matt Defreitas. All four were under four minutes, Mark Carroll becoming the 23rd Irishman to break that particular barrier. Marcus looked tired, which was not surprising as it was his fourth race in eight days. As always, he said, he got a special thrill winning before his home crowd.

Young Pretender: Mark Carroll leads Marcus O’Sullivan

The 5,000m had another World Indoor Champion, Frank O’Mara, in action. Frank bided his time until the last lap when he surged clear with ease to win impressively in 13:49, with Frank Hanley second and Noel Cullen third.

There was a local success story in this race, too, when young David Healy achieved the European Junior qualifying mark, finishing in 14:24.2.

The Russians dominated all the sprints, while David Matthews had a gutsy run in the 800m, being just pipped by Michael Guegan of the Southern Counties.

T. J. Kearns had a great win in the 110m hurdles in a wind-assisted 13.65, while Sean Cahill must have been pleased with his 13.87 in fourth place.

Another local, Darren Keenan, won the Junior 1,500m in 3:49.88, which was just outside the European Junior qualifying time. Darren must have himself to blame for continuously looking behind over the last 200m. There is no doubt that he has a lot of room for improvement.

The novelty event was the Celebrity 100m, which was won by Jack Clarke from his rugby friend Ken Murphy, with Declan Daly (soccer) close up third. This event was in aid of GOAL and one felt that if the Sports had a few more events of this type on the programme it would certainly add to the occasion.

The pole vault, as usual, attracted the attention of all the young fans and they were not disappointed in seeing Englishman Nick Buckfield clear an excellent 5.41m.

The women’s sprints were dominated by the Russians. The 800m was an exciting affair, with Aisling Molloy being just pipped by Englishwoman Lynn Gibson. Aisling was just back after illness and was pleased with her run.

It was originally intended that the 3,000m would be the main event. In Sonia O’Sullivan’s absence, Geraldine Hendricken was the main Irish hope and she gave the two American women, Procacio and Freaney, plenty to worry about, finishing a close up third to them. While the winning time was a respectable 8:57.58 it was still almost half a minute outside Sonia’s time the following night in Oslo. In that regard Sonia was certainly justified in opting for Oslo!

Terri Horgan was an impressive winner of the long jump in 6.31, while the Irish relay team ran extremely well behind Russia

 Presentation Time: (Left to Right) Michael Lovell, Chairman, Dairygold Foods, Frank Hanley (2nd 5000m), Frank O’Mar a (1st), Noel Berkeley (3rd), Denis Cronin, Chairman Dairygold Co-op and Ray Shanahan, Chairman, Cork City Sports

Peter Byrne's Irish Times Report - Saturday July 10th 1993

O'Sullivan Pushed to Limit by Bruton

Peter Byrne's Irish Times Report - Saturday July 10th 1993

Marcus O’Sullivan’s buildup to next month’s World Championships at Stuttgart is still on schedule — but only- just after his uneasy survival in the Bord Gais mile, the centrepiece of last night’s Cork City Sports at the Mardyke.

Betraying all the telltale signs of a man who was running his fourth race in eight days, O’Sullivan came perilously close to a shock defeat before the experience, bom of years of campaigning, took him to a narrow win over Niall Bruton in figures of three minutes, 57.99 seconds.

With a cold wind billowing across the stadium, the time was largely irrelevant but the plot was never less than gripping as Bruton, in his best race since winning the World Student Games title two vears ago, looked into the eyes of a famous win.

After O'Sullivan had taken over from his fellow Corkman, Marc Carroll between the last two bends, Bruton came to challenge the favourite down the finishing straight and opened up a lead of a metre with less than 80 to go.

At that point, he was going much the better of the two, but, with the race at his mercy, the Dubliner suddenly lost his momentum and O’Sullivan, unbeaten over a mile by an Irishman since his American championship defeat by Frank O’Mara four years ago, wasn’t slow to seize his opportunity. Sensing Bruton’s problems, he dug in still deeper and eventually squeezed home by half a metre from the Clonliffe man who was timed at three minutes, 58.29 seconds.

“The race was there for the winning, I knew it and still ended up finishing second,” said Bruton. “I was feeling strong out of the last bend but then the realisation dawned that I was actually leading Marcus O’Sullivan and I got scared.

“That ts what cost me the race, but, while disappointed, I put it down to experience. This was the fastest mile of my career and after a difficult time, it proves that I am getting it together again”.

O’Sullivan, exhausted, was quick to acknowledge, the dimensions of his escape. “The only reason I won was that I kept my head in a tight situation, ” he said. “I certainly wasn’t going any faster at the finish but Niall may
have discovered that he wasn’t as strong as he had imagined over the last 100 metres”.

“I arrived in Cork only hours before the meeting and even at that point, I sensed that I had bitten off more than I could chew. In the end, it had to be a victory for experience but it is none the less gratifying for that”

Marc Carroll who had taken up the lead at the bell, was eventually run out of it by the Big Two, but he could take rich consolation from the fact that he became the 23rd Irish miler to break four minutes when crossing the line in 3:58.64. For a man bent on making his mark at 5,000 metres, it was an encouraging run on the eve of his departure to Buffalo for the World Student Games.
Sadly, there was no joy for Eamonn Coghlan in his attempt to become the first forty-year-old to run a mile in less than four minutes. Coghlan appeared to be in trouble almost from the start and eventually finished tailed off in 13th place in a time of four minutes 8.55 seconds.

Frank O’Mara distanced himself from the disappointment of his run at Lausanne when finishing with a tremendous rattle to win the 5,000 metres from his fellow Limerickman, Frank Hanley, in a race in which the excitement of the last two laps compensated for some indifferent earlier fare. At one point in an uneven race, O’Mara was back in 10th place, but, in the event, he was merely playing on the emotion of the crowd.

With the ease of a man who knew that he could win in any manner which pleased him, he quickly picked his way through the field before leaving his opponents stranded with an impressive piece of acceleration over the last 300 metres.

On a night when the depth of Russia’s athletics talent was repeatedly illustrated in a big win in the team event, the exception materialised in the women’s 3,000 metres race in which Geraldine Hendricken ran with characteristic courage but still had to settle for third place behind the two Americans, Gina Procaccio and Cathy Franey.

Terri Horgan is still searching for a qualifying standard for the world tong jump championship after another resilient performance but Aishling Molloy receded from a position of some authority to be caught by the English athlete, Lynn Gibson in last few strides in the women’s 800 metres.

TJ Kearns accelerated his preparations for Stuttgart by outpacing Hugh Teape, a finalist in the Olympic Games at Barcelona last summer, to win the 110 metres hurdles in 13.65 seconds. This was just two-hundreds of a second outside his Irish record and if the wind gauge was just marginally above the permitted limit, it still represented a useful run.

The gusting wind, immediately behind the athletes was, perhaps, more of a hindrance than a help, for Kearns acknowledged that he was overstriding in the middle stages of the race, at a stage when Teape looked all set to deliver on his reputation with a narrow win.

The Irishman, running in the lane immediately outside Teape, never lost his composure, however, and after drawing level between the last two obstacles, surged clear on the run in for his most gratifying performance since the Ulster Games in Belfast.

Results of Cork City Sports 1993

Note: Some individual results missing - it is not known if they are missing, or if positions were incorrectly numbered

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