The 38th annual Ballycotton ’10’ road race, this year takes place on March 12th 2017! Entry into the race is now closed, but you can still come and support the runners! Last years race for the first time since 1981, the honours in the Ballycotton ‘10’ went the way of two local Cork runners.
Leevale man Mark Hanrahan led the way home when finishing strongly in 49:01 ahead of Joe Sweeney of DSD, 49:56, and local East Cork AC athlete, Michael Harty, who clocked 50:00 in third.
Led by Harty, the East Cork athletic club packed well, with Tim O’Donoghue finishing in fourth position in 50:25 and James McCarthy placing fifth in 51:29 to easy win the team prize. Alan O’Shea of Bantry, who won the race back in 2007, finished sixth in 52:00.
In the women’s race, Aoife Cooke from nearby Youghal came home a clear winner – finishing in 59:57 – ahead of Derval Devaney, (Rathfarnham-WSAF), 62:17 and Siobhan O’Doherty (Borrisokane), 62:26, who won the 2014 event.
There was a bit of family history about Aoife’s victory as she is a niece of Mary Sweeney of St Finbarr’s, winner of the first Ballycotton women’s race in 1979. Mary, now 55, is still running as well as ever and finished in a new course record for that age-group of 66:38 – over two minutes faster than she ran when winning this race 37 years ago.