O'Rourke named athlete of the year

ATHLETICS NEWS:NO SURPRISE whatsoever that Derval O'Rourke has been named athlete of the year, and the standing ovation she received at the National Athletics Awards in Santry on Saturday night was a fitting tribute to what proved another remarkable season for the Cork athlete.

To underline her successful 2010, during which she won Ireland’s only medal at the European Championships in Barcelona, O’Rourke also collected the track performance of the year award for the second successive year.

Winning that silver medal in Barcelona in an Irish 100 metres hurdles record of 12.65 seconds was clearly the highlight of the year, although there was plenty more to celebrate on the night.

There were 12 awards, presented annually in association with Woodie’s DIY and Tipperary Crystal. Cork’s Robert Heffernan was named race walker of the year for two fourth-place finishes at the European Championships, Waterford’s Kelly Proper was named field athlete of the year for improving the women’s long jump record, and Ailis McSweeney was the winner of the inspirational performance award for breaking the women’s 100 metres record which had stood for 32 years.

Down teenager Ciara Mageean was equally deserving of the junior athlete of the year award, and there was a fantastic reception for long-serving Donore Harriers club man Tommy Hayward, who was named official of the year at age 89, and for Dan Kennedy, who received the lifetime achievement award for his work with Irish throwing Olympians and record-breakers Terry McHugh and Nicky Sweeney.

Earlier in the day there was some highly competitive running around the Santry cross country course as Ireland staged the Home Countries Masters Championships, where among the Irish winners was former three-time national champion Peter Matthews, who won the over-40 category. Matthews won the 8km race by 36 seconds from England’s John Herbert in 26:57.

Ciarán Doherty won the over-35 race by a narrow margin from Irish team-mate Paul McNamara, while Carmel Parnell won the women’s over-55 race by a margin of a minute and a half.

The Irish men’s team won the over-35, over-45, over-55 and over-70 events, beating England on each occasion. Irish Olympian Jim McNamara was second in the over-70 race but led the team to a two-point win over England.

NATIONAL ATHLETICS AWARDS: Athlete of the Year/Track Athlete of the Year:Derval O'Rourke (Leevale AC); Race Walker of the Year:Robert Heffernan (Togher AC); Cross Country/Road Athlete of the Year:Mark Kennelly (Clonliffe); Field Athlete of the Year:Kelly Proper (Ferrybank AC); Master Athlete of the Year:Pat Timmons (Raheny Shamrocks); Inspirational Performance of the Year:Ailis McSweeney (Leevale AC); Junior Athlete of the Year:Ciara Mageean (City of Lisburn AC); Official of the Year Award:Tommy Hayward (Donore Harriers); Club of the Year:St Abban's AC, Co Laois; Coach of the Year:Eamonn Christie (Beechmount AC, and coach to Mageean); Lifetime Achievement Award:Dan Kennedy.