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The 69th meeting of the BAM Cork City Sports was launched at the River Lee Hotel as the prestigious event returns after a two-year absence due to the pandemic.
The meet will take place on Tuesday, July 5, at the MTU stadium in Bishopstown,
and at the launch, it was announced that two athletes are hoping to break records on the night.
As a World Athletics Continental Tour (WACT) Bronze meeting, athletes will receive higher ranking points towards qualification for major championships. This year the meeting is within the qualification window for the European Championships in Munich this August, so it also offers athletes the opportunity for achieving qualification. A lot of Irish and International stars will be competing on the night chasing ranking points, prize money, and qualification standards
Included in the list of international stars is a
two-time Olympic Champion and three times World Champion over 800m, Caster Semenya. The
South African will compete in the 3000m looking to impress ahead of the Commonwealth Games and has indicated she will be attempting to break the meet record.
There are a host of Irish stars who will be competing including Cork’s Louise Shanahan
who recently set a new Irish record in the 800m. Louise has postponed her trip to the World Championships to compete in front of her home crowd
Bandon’s Phil Healy, who is a great supporter of Cork City Sports, will be attempting to run a double in
the woman’s 100m and
400m.
Darragh McIlhenny
has confirmed that he is going to attempt to rewrite the
17-year-old meeting record in the men’s 3000m. The record is held by the great Craig Mottram. This would be a major achievement in front of a Cork crowd. Darragh will be pushed by other Irish stars such as Sean Tobin, Hiko Tonosa, Brian Fay, and teenage star Nick Griggs.
He will also have British opposition from Andrew Butchert who has been a star on the Diamond League circuit for some years.
Andrew Corcoran
will be looking to take the Mile and with the form, he is in who would bet against
him.
Sarah Lavin
has been in superb form over the last year and will be looking to run sub 13 seconds on Irish soil in the 100m hurdles. Eric Favors who recently broke the 30-year-old
Irish record in the shot putt will be competing against a strong field.
There will also be
inter-firm
relay competitions and junior races in addition to the international events. These have proved very popular over the past few years.
Speaking at the launch Frank Walley, president of Cork City Sports said: “The Cork City Sports committee wishes to acknowledge the financial support of the Irish Sports Council, Sport Ireland, Cork City Council, Cork County Council, Athletics Ireland, and Cork County Board AAI.
“We would like to thank our event sponsors, Cork Airport, Cork Education and Training Board, Johnson Controls, John Buckley Sports, AON, Musgraves SuperValu/Centra, the River Lee Hotel, FDC Financial Services, JCD Group, Glenilen Farm, O’Leary Insurance Group and Media sponsors, The Echo and Cork 96FM C103.
“We also wish to thank our event host, Munster Technological University, and the Defence Forces for their ongoing support. It will be a great evening of sport at MTU for all the family who
will be able to see the stars of Irish and World athletics at first hand and we are delighted that we are back on the track after a two-year absence.”
The event was formally launched by Cllr Tony Fitzgerald, deputising for the Lord Mayor and Cllr Gillian Coughlan, Cork County Mayor.
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