September '25 Round-Up

W/E 7th September 2025

Most roads led to Kerry at the weekend where John Mason and David Pigott took on the Kerry way ultra lite and Paul Mc Farland, Donal Sheahan and Ger O’ Leary took part in the Dingle half marathon.

For John and David, it was a gruelling journey of 58km with 1346m elevation in the wind and rain. This didn’t stop them clocking fantastic times of 7:42:28 and 12:48:45 respectively. Unreal going lads.

Next up was the Dingle half marathon where Paul clocked 1:47:34, Donal 1:57:29 and Ger 1:57:49. Great running from all.

Finally we had Adam King who represented Youghal AC in the Ardmore AC event in the under 11 javelin and finishing on the podium in third place. Well done Adam, keep it up.

14th September 2025

W/E 14.09.2025 Round-Up

A busy weekend of action for Youghal AC athletes, young and not so young, near and far, half marathons aplenty

Where do we start!? Well, it’s not every day you have a Youghal AC athlete breaking national records, so first up is non other than our very own Fearghal Curtin. Fearghal travelled to Denmark over the weekend to take part in the Copenhagen Half Marathon, and finished a fantastic 8th place overall in a time of 1:00:22

Kate McFarland travelled with the family to Kilkenny on Saturday morning to take part in the Medieval Half Marathon. It was a great family day out capped off with a fine performance, coming home in 2:01:45

Three of our athletes made the trip to North Cork for the Charleville Half Marathon on Sunday morning in less-than-ideal running conditions. Laura Keane, Donal Sheehan and Mossy O’ Mahony continued their preparation for upcoming marathons. Laura Keane completed the course in a PB 1:38:30, Donal followed in 1:57:27 and Mossy in 2:11:35

14th September 2025

East Cork XC Championships Even Age 2025 (14/09)

Youghal AC were represented to great success by no fewer than 39 young Athletes. Medals galore, there were lots of happy faces leaving Ballynoe for Youghal, Killeagh, Ballymacoda and other Homelands.

U10 (1km) - Ellie Murray led the team of Eabha Hogan, Lucy O’ Brien, Aisling Murphy, Amelie Barry, Reidin Walsh, Clara Kelleher & Annelise Kelleher to a Team Bronze medal. Ellie led the field for the first lap with a sizeable gap back to the pack but had to settle for Silver being pipped on the run in.

Next up the U10 Boys on the same course. Again some first timers, brilliant performances all round culminating with Team Gold. Brian Kelleher finished Second overall leading home Hunter O’Rourke, Cian Byrne, Cillian Hogan, Oisin McNulty, Lee Walsh, Oscar Ryan, Cully Rockford and Jack Dardis. A team with huge potential going forward.

Our U12 Girls were next up over the 1500m course, a long hill to start followed by a sweeping downhill into another testing climb before the descent into the finishing funnel was a test for any athlete. The Girls missing out on a Bronze medal by just one point can feel frustrated by having a small team on the day. Addison Dardis ever improving lead the team of Layla Flaherty, Shannon O’ Shea, Willow Kearney and Siun Rochford.

An already experienced Boys U12 team aided by two newcomers secured team Silver with Brogan McCarthy winning our first individual Gold of the day. Super performances from Fionn McCarthy, Conal McNulty, Gary Batt, Brendan Shannen, Tomas McGrath and Darragh O’Mahony.

Freya Keating was our only representative in the Girls U14 race and ran strongly for the first 1500 metres of the 2k course just running out of steam late on. A podium finish is definitely in sight for Freya who is one of our most consistent trainers and coming off the back of a successful track and field season.

The U14 boys team are undoubtedly the team of the moment. Team Gold and a full podium these lads have bigger things in sight at the Business end of the season. Diarmuid Murphy led home Olan Rochford and James Kelleher, but with Sean O' Donoghue, Shay Walsh and Ernie Sharkey running great too

U18 Girls had to contend with 3k climbing the long hill twice. Aine Collins still recovering from a respiratory problem over the last couple of Years ran well, hoping to just test herself a little to see where her current levels are. Aoife Barry, running her first Cross Country race and a regular name on the Cork Ladies Football panel also ran really well smiling all the way around.

Boys under 18 started with the Juniors, Seniors and Masters seeing them do 3 laps and 4k, acquitting themselves very well and adding to the podium finishes. Conor Sheehan took Gold U18 with Issac Landers taking Silver. both securing Junior medals also.

Not to be outdone, our female and male athletes took on the 3km & 6km races respectively, with aplomb. Our male team securing second senior team, with Club Chairperson Dee Ansbro taking home 2nd F35 for her efforts.

A hugely enjoyable day out all around in Ballynoe

26th September 2025

Well done to all of our juvenile athletes who took part in the schools XC today in Fr. O Neills. Each and every one of them represented the club and their school with aplomb and there were lots of medals taken home between them. Although they may have been there representing different schools, the big win today was seeing how all the Youghal AC athletes supported and encouraged eachother on course 

28th September 2025; Cork County Even Age Championships 2025 at West Muskery Athletics Club 

Sun shining, track dry and solid underfoot, a real test of stamina on a very tough course. Steep climb from the start and an even steeper last 100 to the finish, only the toughest could survive this course. Bodies lay strewn across the finishing area after every race.

Spikes on and warmup complete our U10 Girls took to the start line. Excellent performances rounded off with a second place finish for Ellie Murray. A real talent in the making. The team took 6th place overall with Isabelle Walsh, Amelie Barry, Clara Kelleher and Aisling Murphy all running strongly.

The U10 boys were up next and had a very credible 5th place finish. Brian Kelleher took 13th place with Hunter O’Rourke close behind in 18th and Oisin McNulty 31st. Super running from Cian Byrne, Cillian Hogan, Lee Walsh and Cullie Rochford seen them just a few points off a team medal.

U12 Girls were super on the day. Siun Rochford had her best finish to date, leading home the team of Willow Morgan, Addison D’ardis and Shannon O’Shea.

U12 Boys team of Brogan McCarthy, Conall McNulty, Fionn McCarthy, Jake Hickey and Darragh McGrath O’Mahony also just outside the team medals in 5th and a credible 12 individual finish for Brogan. This is a team that has plenty more to give.

Our only representative in the Girls under 14 race was the ever consistent Freya Keating. Found it really hard today, and given that Freya likes the shorter distances this is adding strength and endurance for bigger days ahead at the track.

The U14 Boys stole the show with 3 finishers in the top 5. All running up in age, this was a dominant display. Sitting just off the lead for the first half Lap, Diarmuid Murphy moved to the front and never looked back until team mate Olan Rochford came with a brilliant finish to nearly pip him on the line. Just 1 second between them. James Kelleher was 19 seconds behind taking 5th place and a bronze individual medal. 4th scorer in xc is very important and the returning Ernie Sharkey did the honours with Shay Walsh just 5 seconds behind. Jeffrey Nicholson also on the come back trail this Year helping to secure Team Gold. 

The U16 boys race seen the performance of the day, and one of the most dominant displays probably ever seen. This couldn’t be described as a front running performance but rather a solobeffort on a really tough course. It’s very hard running out front on your own, but the imperious Devereaux cruised throughout the race finishing out of sight of his nearest competitor in a time of 13:13….

Aine Collins ran the Girls U18 race. Great to see Aine actually completing races never mind being competitive after all Her injuries. Another box ticked on what will hopefully be a return to the front of the pack soon.

We had the super pair of Conor Sheehan and Isaac Landers completing the competition from a Youghal A/C point of view. Both running really good times. Both able to make comments and smile throughout the 5K course. Ever entertaining, two most likeable characters who are gearing towards road racing and suffering through the XC circuit for training purposes.

All in all a great day out.

Thanks as always to all the Families for supporting. We move on to County uneven age and hopefully another successful outing.