Cork City Sports - 2nd July

Rineanna

Ireland's premier international athletics event returns on Saturday for its second year at the CIT track.

Some big names lined up already if the announcements to date hold true.

Natasha Hastings toeing the line in the 400m, with Muna Lee and Melissa Barber lining up over 100m.

Men's 400m should be a cracker, with Renny Quow and Tabarie Henry announced.

Paul Hession will tackle Jared Connaughton and current World silver medalist Alonso Edwards.

Couple of good Americans toeing the line for the 1500m/3000m.

http://www.corkcitysports.ie/

http://www.facebook.com/corkcitysports

myflipflops

Any start lists available? I can't find them on the website.

I'd love to see Nick Willis running in Cork, 1500 looks pretty good with himself and Leer running.

woodchopper

Rineanna wrote: »

Ireland's premier international athletics event returns on Saturday for its second year at the CIT track.

Some big names lined up already if the announcements to date hold true.

Natasha Hastings toeing the line in the 400m, with Muna Lee and Melissa Barber lining up over 100m.

Men's 400m should be a cracker, with Renny Quow and Tabarie Henry announced.

Paul Hession will tackle Jared Connaughton and current World silver medalist Alonso Edwards.

Couple of good Americans toeing the line for the 1500m/3000m.

http://www.corkcitysports.ie/

http://www.facebook.com/corkcitysports

Without a doubt, Nick Willis is the best athlete coming to Cork since Buster Mottram. Willis has an Olympic medal in the main event of the Olympics the blue riband of course.

RoyMcC

woodchopper wrote: »

the main event of the Olympics the blue riband of course.

Mmm, some would disagree. Certainly it's the classic MD shoot-out now the mile is (almost) history.

Rineanna

I love the women's 1500m on the circuit and at champs, but find the men's version a tad boring.

Loving the sprints fields here though, so Saturday should be a cracker. Looking forward to seeing the fields for the hammer and long jumps too.

bat_573

Some very good athletes there. Hopefully the weather holds up!

Rineanna

Start lists: http://www.corkcitysports.ie/2011_Start_Lists.pdf

A bit of a clanger that the AAI organised a relay trip away on the same weekend, so no Derval, McSweeney, Whelan or Foster. I guess they need al the practice they can get at the moment :pac:

Natasha Hastings versus Shana Cox should be a good match up, as is Nick Willis v Will Lear.

Quow versus Henry versus Mathieu in the 400m. Maybe Gillick willick will rush home and get a race this week.

The men's 400mh looks exciting from an Irish perspective with all our top young hurdlers lining up against eachother.

Getonwithit

400h will be a cracker esp if Paul Byrne is close to his time from Wednesday night he will put it up to Crowe

Rineanna

Fancy new live start lists for this year's edition: http://www.corkcitysports.ie/meetmanager/


Think it's the same live results programme used for the NCAA meets?

downwithfacses

looks like auld dickie isnt happy...
http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/cork-chief-hodgins-angry-at-stars-lack-of-support-2811002.html

besides gillick, cragg and derval who exactly is missing? and if dickie is so worried about the relay team being sent to switzerland why didn't he put on a relay for them at cork?? and why is he spending all his money on foreign athletes while refusing to pay for irish ones? does he just expect them to show up just because it's in ireland? poor auld dickie

Rineanna

In fairness, there are a heap of Irish competing in Oordegem in Belgium today, and a few in Holland as well. It's not often you can compete against international competitiors on home turf, so I agree in the sense that it would be nice to put on a good show with all the top Irish names.

I assume many have been tempted to compete abroad in search of qualifying times, as the winds in at the CCS (at both CIT and Mardyke) are atrocious.

downwithfacses

banned for two weeks for slander. If you want to name and abuse someone, create your own forum to do so.

donothoponpop

downwithfacaes perma-banned from this forum. After three previous bans, you should be aware how things operate here.

swisstwist

'Elite' Irish athletes should help promote Irish Track and Field events. End of. How else can the public gauge the achievements and progress Irish athletes are making? We need Irish athletes to compete at home to grow respect and interest in the sport. I mean only one Irish representative in the men 400m is a disgrace, especially as he is 800m man too.

Rineanna wrote: »

I assume many have been tempted to compete abroad in search of qualifying times, as the winds in at the CCS (at both CIT and Mardyke) are atrocious.

I don't buy the 'atrocious' winds thing about the Cork tracks. It is not an excuse not to race. Look at Niall Tuohys great 400m time today. The CIT track can be very fast, especially in a world class field. Besides that point is redundant when you look at the only time two Irish men ran two sub 46s in the same race was on a windy and wintry July day in 2004. Tomas Coman just pipping Rob Daly who ran a PB after spending months trying to get that time at so called fast European events. Athletes should race at home more often to help build foundations of the sport here. This thing of going to Belgium, Switzerland etc ruins the chances for less financially able athletes to put one over the established athletes. Part of me thinks thats why some runners chose not to compete at home.

That said there should be more races at home. But who is going to organise high level events if they see only a few Irish athletes race in the well established Cork City Sports? This is something the athletics community needs to tackle before the sport is spectator-less here at home.

swisstwist

oh by the way, forgot to congratulate the great performances of Irish athletes at the Cork City Sports today. In a way the crowd were only there to see the Irish compete against an international selection. They didn't disappoint considering the talent they were faced against.

Well done.

runjb

To be fair, there seems to be a more than usual amount of strong wind in Cork. Last year I was there myself and it was frustrating for some athletes running into a -4/5/6 head wind.

Today the winds were strong, making some results illegal or under-par.

However I do agree that Irish athletes should support the meet.

swisstwist

Point taken about wind legality, which would be an issue for the 100m and the 200m. I would excuse that if an athlete is close to a 'B' or 'A' standard for international competition but the organisers packed most fields with exceptional international talent. Why not race against them? Fat chance an up and coming (47-48 second) or on the cusp of a B standard athlete would get a chance to race Renny Quow over 400m in Europe.

Despite the sometimes crappy weather, Irish events can offer athletes great competitive racing experience. I am not talking about O'Rourke or Gillick who it could be argued have bigger fish to fry but just find it bizarre that some (not all) athletes who represent the Irish team don't support Irish events.

Rineanna

A great blog by Nick Willis on the Cork City Sports, and the effort put into meets like these.

http://theteamwillis.wordpress.com/

swisstwist

Cheers for that Rineanna. That Nick Willis blogpost about the City Sports is brilliant. Got to love his down to earth perspective