Marathon to make a return to Leeside

CORK City Marathon is set to return after an absence of 21 years on June 4th.

Jim O’Donovan, Director of Services, Community and Enterprise with Cork City Council, announced details of the event yesterday.

He said that the event will: “belong to the people of Cork and those visiting the city will experience all that’d good about Cork hospitality and entertainment.”

For a number of years ­ back in the running boom of the early 80s ­ the Cork City Marathon was a feature of the athletics calendar when it held a traditional Easter Monday slot.

The biggest of the races was in 1984 when it incorporated the national championships. Jerry Kiernan, a sub four minute miler who had just made a sensational switch to distance running, won the race but was stripped of the title in controversial circumstances.

That time the “amateur” rules only allowed sponsors’ logos of a certain size.

It was deemed that Kiernan’s ADIDAS logo contravened the rules and he lost the title. Later that year he represented Ireland at the Los Angeles Olympics where he finished ninth in the marathon in which his team-mate, John Treacy, won the silver medal.

Now a new and energetic committee behind the event hope to revive the glory days of marathon running in Cork ­ a city that has produced Olympic marathon runner, Donie Walsh, and many other leading marathon men including Dick Hodgins, who also won a national title.

“Dublin, Galway, Belfast, Longford and many other centres have their marathons so why not Cork,” O’Donovan said. “The people of Cork should not have to travel outside their own city to run a marathon. In fact we don’t have a marathon in Munster.”

A flat course on the Southside of the City will make it attractive for the runners and showpiece the city.

“While it has the backing of the City Council, this is partnership promotion and we hope to involve all the local communities and local organisations,” Tony O’Connell, a member of the PR committee, said: “We had a stand at the Dublin Marathon on Monday week and there was a huge response. More than 480 people put their name on the list so we can expect a bit influx of visitors.”