Cobh

<h1>Memories are made of this</h1>
By Fr Liam Kelleher
On a recent evening, I was making my way to have dinner with Bernie and Mary O'Callaghan in Cobh, who were visiting from Donegal. Both are still an integral part of the sport of athletics after a lifetime of service to the sport. On my way, I bumped into Kathryn Shaw (Johnson), a native of Dromcollogher now living in Kerry.&nbsp;
She mentioned she had downloaded the Xplore Cobh app and was delighted with all the information on Cobh. She saw the story on the app re the miracle mile in Tullylease, 2 miles from her home in Dromcollogher 4O years before, which was published last week in the Vale Star newspaper. I did mention the fact that as a young teenager, Kathyrn won the very first race the day the track was opened, and among the stars were Olympic champion Steve Ovett and world champion Eamonn Coghlan.&nbsp;
Kathryn won the senior 100. The next race was won by a young man named Michael Kiernan, who later went on to star in Rugby for Ireland. Kathryn went on to carve out a fantastic sporting career in hockey; she still plays the game and has a World Cup Seniors medal from a few years ago in her collection. Her sister Barbara Oakes stuck with the sport of athletics after helping her school at the Ursuline in Blackrock, as Kathyrn did to school titles. One of the many highlights of my athletic career was to be present at the Olympic stadium in Seoul, Korea to see Barbara represent her country in the 400m hurdles event. A huge help to bring the athletes I was coaching at the time to a higher level was the training sessions conducted on Inch beach in Kerry.
<h3>House at Inch beach in Kerry</h3>
The Johnson family had a house overlooking the strand and that was our headquarters. A few times a year we booked a few more local houses to accommodate the 4O plus athletes who wanted to take part. We usually had 2 sessions a day. The morning one consisted of a run at the back of the dunes to the point, which must have been 3-4 miles. That was followed by interval runs on the undulating dunes for over half an hour and then an easy run back on the beach to base. The more dedicated older athletes went off for an easy run in the evening.&nbsp;
For many years since, long after I had gone to other parishes, Liam O'Brien who competed in the steeplechase at the Los Angeles Olympics took athletes there from East Cork to train. So while our encounter was brief many memories came flooding back from an era when life was simple and dedication and commitment was the driving force to success.
<h3>Report from Marathon, an athletics Magazine from 1985</h3>

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After all the messages on the post I put on Social media after meeting up with Kathryn, l thought it might be a good idea to publish the article and pictures printed in Marathon Athletics magazine, which I published back then on our training camp.&nbsp;
Looking at it now it seems scarcely believable that such a tough training regime could have been possible. But it was possible, and look at the results the athletes produced, particularly the athletes at the time and mostly from North Cork AC. Liam O'Brien Midleton, who put in more sessions there than anyone else, won 11 National Steeplechase titles and reached the Semi-final of the event at the Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984. He is still very much involved in the sport through Cork City Sports and coaching athletes.
Anita Philpott, who had many thrilling tussles with Sonia O'Sullivan in their teenage years — she medalled in the British AAA's. Finished 2nd in the schools International helping the team (which included Sonia) to a rare team gold at this level. After taking up an athletics scholarship at Providence University, she won the USA junior x country title. She returned for her summer holidays to Ireland and was injured, but recovered sufficiently to take her place in the 3,000m at the European Junior Championships in Birmingham. I was privileged to be the team manager. Sonia, home from Villanova, travelled as well and there was huge disappointment when she had to pull out due to her injury which had not fully cleared up.&nbsp;
Anita finished 4th in the final behind Fernando Ribero of Portugal, who later went on to win the world title. Sonia recovered, went back to the States, and went from strength. Meanwhile, Anita won the National Senior 1,500m, but plagued by injury she called it a day after making the final of the European 3,000m — a race won by Sonia. Other athletes to train at Inch included Kieran Stack, Garrett Barry, Cormac O'Riordan, Geoffrey Sheehan and John Murray — all who made the Irish junior team for the world x country championships. The year John ran, he finished 17th and was the first white man home.&nbsp;
Throw in the likes of the late Ger Twomey who won the Senior schools all-Ireland country and the Senior 5,000 on the track, both barefoot. Like Ger, Michael Cotter, Finbarr Egan, Garrett Barry, Kieran and Brian Stack took the US scholarship trail and as mentioned already, the success of the Johnson sisters outlined. There were many more athletes who availed of the Inch experience and there are many other stories that could be added. They will remain in the memory bank of HAPPY DAYS and Happy times.

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Nostalgic Memories of Training at Inch Beach in Kerry

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