MTU new track ready for stacked fields at Cork City Sports meeting

Chief among the athletes is Phil Healy, who will race the 100m and 200m – the Bandon AC athlete taking on a loaded field over 100m that includes Anavia Battle, a finalist at the recent US Olympic Trials, and fellow US sprinter Celera Barnes, a 10.94 athlete.

Tue, 09 Jul, 2024 - 07:19

Cathal Dennehy

The first big race is already run: the dash to the finish to get the track at Munster Technological University (MTU) completed on time. But now that it’s done, freshly lined and open for business, all that’s left is for some stars of Irish athletics to light it up.

With just a few weeks until they walk out at the Stade de France on the biggest stage of all, a horde of Paris-bound athletes will gauge their form against strong international opposition at tonight’s Cork City Sports, a Continental Tour bronze-level meeting.

Chief among them is Phil Healy, who will race the 100m and 200m – the Bandon AC athlete taking on a loaded field over 100m that includes Anavia Battle, a finalist at the recent US Olympic Trials, and fellow US sprinter Celera Barnes, a 10.94 athlete.

Healy’s 100m best is the former Irish record of 11.28 she ran in 2018 and after a horrid spell in recent years as she came to terms with an auto-immune condition, she has bounced back strongly, helping the Irish women’s 4x400m team to silver at the Europeans in Rome and winning the national 200m title recently in 23.42.

“Cork is always special for me,” she says. “No matter what shape I’m in, I always turn up for Cork to go back to a home crowd. The fields are stacked.”

In the 200m she also faces a field packed with quality. It includes Australian teenager Torrie Lewis, who defeated US superstar Sha’Carri Richardson to win the Xiamen Diamond League in April. Also in the field is USA’s Talitha Diggs, the 2022 US and NCAA 400m champion, and Sophie Becker, the national 400m champion who will compete in Paris both as an individual and in the 4x400m.

The men’s 100m features a cluster of men who could threaten the 10-second barrier, which has never been broken in Ireland. Retshidisitswe Mlenga of South Africa clocked a wind-assisted 9.93 in recent weeks and takes on Cejhae Greene from Antigua and Barbuda, who clocked 10.00 in May. Also in the field is JT Smith, a finalist at the US Olympic Trials.

The home charge is led by Irish record holder Israel Olatunde, who ran 10.27 to win at nationals. “I’m very excited to be back in front of Irish crowds and I hope I can put on a show,” he said. “The standard is really high, I was (in Cork) two years ago; I picked up the win in a stacked field so I’ll go out and see if I can defend my title.”

Sarah Lavin will have huge support in the 100m hurdles, where the Limerick star will face several women who have run below 13 seconds, including Mette Graversgaard, Ebony Morrison and Talie Bonds. But given her recent form, Lavin will be fancied to win this.

The first event of the evening at 5.30pm is the women’s hammer and it’s the event with the highest-calibre field of all – Bandon’s Nicola Tuthill taking on a slew of world-class women. The 20-year-old recently secured her spot at her first Olympics and will be hoping to threaten her PB of 70.32m. She will face two of the world’s best, 2022 world champion Brooke Andersen and last year’s world silver medallist, Janee Kassanavoid.

Leevale’s Reece Ademola will hope to get close to the illustrious eight-metre barrier in the men’s long jump, the barometer of world-class jumping, and several other men in the field have surpassed that mark.

Sophie O’Sullivan, the daughter of Sonia, will race the 3000m in Cork as she prepares for her Olympic debut in Paris over 1500m and she faces a deep international field.

The meeting will close with the men’s mile at 9.10pm and the four-minute barrier should be smashed. The field includes US trio Sam Prakel, Joe Waskom and Luke Houser, the latter taking victory at the half-time mile staged in Croke Park on Sunday to mark the centenary of Ireland’s first Olympic participation as a national delegation. The home challenge will be led by Charlie O’Donovan and Cathal Doyle.

Entrance for adults is €15 to the stand. Ground admission is €10 for adults and €5 for students and OAP’s. Under-12s accompanied by an adult can enter free of charge.