Cork City Sports rate high on rankings list

BUPA Cork City Sports received another off-season accolade this week when last summer's edition was ranked sixth on the evaluation list of outdoor meetings for 2005, with the points total reaching a stunning 79,994 - only slightly behind the total for the second-placed meeting.

"Naturally we are thrilled with the evaluation, which places us among the top meetings in Europe and ranked alongside some of the big world meets," chairman Dick Hodgins said yesterday. "The previous year we were ranked 12th with 77,686 points."

The points total is critical in attracting world class athletes to a meeting because, at the end of the season, the points decide which athletes are invited to compete in the lucrative Grand Prix Final which is decided over two days.

"From that point of view it is very significant," Dick Hodgins said. "It means that we will be one of the meetings athletes will look at when they are planning their season.

The top meet this year was again the Rethymno meet in Greece.

Meanwhile Colin Costello and Danny Darcy, gold and silver medallists in the 1,500m at this year's European junior track and field championships, will line up together for the junior men's race at the national inter-counties championships at Sligo Racecourse on Sunday.

Since the Europeans, they have gone their separate ways. Costello, an Irish Examiner Youth Sports Star Award winner, left DCU to join Mick Byrne's squad at Iona College while Darcy joined the programme at DCU.

They are set to renew the partnership at the SPAR European cross-country championships in Tilburg on December 11.

Paul Pollock from Abbey AC will also be in the reckoning in the junior race along with David McCarthy (West Waterford) and Corkman, Ciaran Ó Lionaird.

The senior men's race will see Mark Christie, three time national junior inter-clubs champion and winner of the junior race last year, stepping up. Gary Murray, the reigning inter-clubs champion, will be the hot favourite following his third place in Holland a couple of weeks ago.

The senior women's race will see Jolene Byrne, Maria McCambridge and Orla O'Mahony from Clare lining up.

Roseanne Galligan, now coached by Robert Denmead, will be favourite to retain her title in the junior women's race although her new coach pointed out that she is aiming for Tilburg rather than this race.