James Grufferty continued his return to form at the inaugural Fota 4 mile road race tonight, beating off the challenge of a 600+ field as well as a flock of maverick wildfowl and several roaming llamas. James was in the leading group throughout, and pulled away on the run in to the finish to win well from Con Marshall of St. Finbarr’s in 21:04. This was quite a respectable time on a narrow, windy course that was every bit as unique and spectacular as the organisers had promised.
Next for Leevale was Chris Harrington in 8th place with a time of 22:14, not far ahead of Cillian Ó Tuama, 13th in 22:29. Completing the Leevale four was Mark Bickerdike in 20th position in 22:55. Owen Cummins and Fergus McCarthy followed not far behind in 31st and 39th with times of 23:31 and 24:02 respectively. It was great to have 6 athletes inside the top 40, and it was well rewarded with a Leevale win in the men’s team event.
Carmel Parnell was 2nd in the women’s event in 24:05, winning the O50 category. Jessica Vonhatten wasn’t far back, finishing in 24:40, good enough for 4th overall in the women’s event.
The race was notable for the huge numbers that turned out to support the event – 680 must surely be a record for a evening race in Cork. Eagle AC must be congratulated on the staging of a great new fixture in the athletics calendar.
Results:
| Pos | Time | Name | Club |
| 1 | 21:04 | James Grufferty | Leevale AC |
| 2 | 21:11 | Con Marshall | St. Finbarrs AC |
| 3 | 21:49 | Trevor Woods | St. Finbarrs AC |
| 4 | 21:50 | Shane Coffey | Togher AC |
| 5 | 21:58 | George Waugh | Rising Sun AC |
| 6 | 22:02 | Cosmos De Burca | Rising Sun AC |
| 7 | 22:03 | Seán Dowling | |
| 8 | 22:14 | Chris Harrington | Leevale AC |
| 9 | 22:17 | Noel Curtin | Youghal AC |
| 10 | 22:20 | Frank O’Carroll | East Cork AC |
| 11 | 22:23 | Wesley McNamara | St. Finbarrs AC |
| 12 | 22:25 | Mark Nolan | |
| 13 | 22:29 | Cillian Ó Tuama | Leevale AC |
| 14 | 22:40 | Éamon O’Donovan | Rising Sun AC |
| 15 | 22:41 | Alan O’Reilly | CIT AC |
| 16 | 22:42 | Éamon McEvoy | St. Finbarrs AC |
| 17 | 22:43 | Colm Sheehan | |
| 18 | 22:47 | Jason Nicholl | St. Finbarrs AC |
| 19 | 22:52 | Kieran Ryan | Togher AC |
| 20 | 22:55 | Mark Bikerdike | Leevale AC |
