All roads lead to Ballycotton all year around

“The race first has always been our priority, but if there are additional spin off’s, that’s great” John Walshe

By Derek Kiely

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THE DUST has just settled in beautiful Ballycotton after another explosive afternoon of athletics along the East Cork peninsular.

The Ballycotton ‘10’ Mile road race celebrated its 30^th Anniversary last Sunday and it has grown dramatically

over the years from a 77 entry back in 1978 to a field of over 2,500 participants in 2008.

There was a race in 1977 that started of road racing in the area, but that was a five mile road race which was won by Ray Treacy and only two men have run in every race since that opening event, Youghal Athletic Club’s Willie O’Mahony and Mr Ballycotton ‘10’ John Walshe.

“The race first has always been our priority, but if there are additional spin off’s, that great and I know that the local economy gets a massive boost during last weekend, with the Bayview Hotel that normally doesn’t open until May operated to accommodate the visitors to the area, local Bed & Breakfasts were full and a lot of people were in and around the Shanagarry, Cloyne, Midleton and Youghal area’s” says Walshe.

“The local community really get behind the event every year and I know of families that have moved to live in the Ballycotton area simply on the strength of their visit to us here in East Cork at one stage or another, in fact there are a lot of people who return here after their first visit to the area, so the tourism industry does benefit from the race in a sense”.

Famous names like Sonia O’Sullivan, Gary Staines from Belgrade Harriers who holds the course record (47.00) six times winner Noel Berkley and Olympic and five times World Cross Country Champion John Ngugi from Kenya have all pounded the roads and narrow lanes around the closed circuit ten mile course.

The race course hasn’t changed in 30 years, it still remains an accurate ten mile test “Ireland has changed dramatically over the last 30 years or so, lifestyles have changed, people’s attitudes are different and even athletics and most sports have been completely transformed. But one thing hasn’t changed in all those years and that is the way we run this event and the warm welcome we extend to everyone who competes at the Ballycotton ‘10’.

“The amount of support and help we received last weekend from everyone in the community was incredible, people like the Midleton area Gardai, Juvenile GAA clubs like Cloyne and Russell Rovers, the local school children who cleaned up all the litter, the stewards and our own Ballycotton ‘10’ Running Promotions group and last but by no means least our two main sponsors, the ESB through Billy Menton and Nike who have been with us for nearly 20 years, for all those peoples help we are very grateful” concluded Walshe.

Just 12 months to go until the 31^st Ballycotton ‘10’ mile road race and you can see it already in John Walshe’s eyes, that he is looking forward to the next one.