The Boston Scientific Half Marathon took place today in ideal conditions. Right from the start Paul Minogue made his intentions known as he went into the lead inside the 1st 200m. He was closely followed by a group consisting of Garrett Lordan of Clonakilty Road runners, John O Brien of St Finbarrs AC, Johnny O Sullivan of Grange Fermoy AC and Paddy Cummins of Moycarkey Coolcroo AC. Paul maintained this strong pace all the way to come home a very worthy and convincing winner in 1 hour 13 mins 56 secs, brilliant running on this new route. Then we had Garrett Lordan also running well when finishing 2nd in 1 hour 14 mins 31 secs with John O Brien finishing a very good 3rd in 1 hour 16 mins 53 secs. Johnny O Sullivan also ran very well when winning the over 50 award in 78 mins, followed by Dermot Gough of West Waterford who won the over 40 award in 80 mins 6 secs. Martin Lynch also ran very well when winning the over 60 award in a very good time of 89 mins 9 secs.
The women’s race was also competitive. Her we had Angela McCann running a brilliant race when winning the women’s race in 83 mins 46 secs when finishing 13th overall. Indeed, looking back over the history of this event, first promoted in 2010, Angela has an impressive list of achievements like 2010 – 1st, 2011 – 1st, 2012 – 1st, 2013 – 1st, 2014 – 3rd, 2015 – 5th and 2019 – 2nd. Class is permanent, form is temporary. Back to the race and then we had Niamh Cronin of St Finbarrs Ac also running very well when finishing 2nd in 87 mins 6secs with Kate Hickson also of St Finbarrs’s AC finishing 3rd in 91 mins 34 secs. The Master Women Awards were won by Joan Mahoney of Waterford who was an impressive winner of the over 40 award in 92 mins 35 secs with Maria griffin of St Joseph’s Ac winning the over 50 award impressively in 95 mins 53 secs. Mary Sweeny of St Finbarrs AC was an impressive winner of the over 60 award in 1 hour 40 mins 24 secs.
The Club would like to thank Boston Scientific for sponsoring the Classic event. The Club would also like to acknowledge the brilliant assistance by the Gardai and the Civil Defence. To all our stewards, water station personnel and helpers, a hugh thank you for the tremendous effort put in to make this event a spectacular success. The Club Chairman, Frank Lynch, at the Presentation of the Awards also thanked Colaiste Cheitinn for the use of their fine facilities as race headquarters.
