Sport: Bandon AC on track for brand-new facility

Bandon Athletic Club’s 60th anniversary was marked in fine style this year, as two of its starlets represented Ireland at the Olympics – and the 61st birthday will be a special one too.

Phil Healy was part of the team that finished fourth in the women’s 4x400m relay, while Nicola Tuthill was the youngest member of the Ireland track and field contingent, taking part in the hammer throw.

Producing competitors of such quality underlines the work that has gone on since the club was formed in 1964, while the awarding of €404,000 in the recent round of Sports Capital Grants will allow for the completion of works on a new, purpose-built track in time for summer.

The quest to find a base of its own has not been a short one for the Cork club, as Bandon chairperson Adrian O’Flynn outlines.

“It’s had different bases over the years,” he says. “It’s been all around the town and the outskirts of the town, especially at the start. Eventually it ended up in the Town Park, the grass track is there at least 30 years anyway.

“The club probably started looking to get a home under Billy Good’s stewardship, around 15 years ago.

"The biggest problem is land – ideally, you need somewhere around 10ac to make a good, proper-sized track.

“The other issue is that while there were plenty of sites identified, some of them would have been very hilly and would have required a lot of work. Some of them then were more expensive and didn’t really fit from a budgeting perspective.

“It was through Billy Good’s connection with Liam Crowley, out the Kilbrittain road, that helped us get the site that we have now today, which is about 9ac.”

A grant of €290,000 helped to get things up and running.

“We purchased the land in February of 2021,” says Adrian. “We got the sports capital grant at the back end of that year and then the first work started in 2022.

“We did a number of different things. We did fundraising – we set up the club lotto and went after corporate sponsorship.

“Because of the overall cost, we as a club said that we could go one way and borrow the money, which could put a big pull on the club. Alternatively, we could go down the route of the sports capital grant – it would take an extra year or two to get it done, but without the struggle of a loan on the club.

Grant support

“A year isn’t a long time to wait in that regard – the grant is a significant amount to support the club in getting the project over the line.

“It’s weather-dependent, but we’d be hoping that, by the back end of the summer, we’ll have it open.”

With a membership edging towards 700 – the highest it has ever been – having a proper facility of its own will be a game-changer for the Bandon athletes, who had to factor in journeys to the track at Munster Technological University in Cork city as part of their top-level training.

“It helps all the athletes in terms of them not having to travel to MTU,” he says. “They’re a lot closer to home, which helps with recovery and eating and sleeping, which is important.

“For people who previously might have decided against travelling to Cork because it was too much commitment, it makes things a bit easier when you have something on the doorstep.”

Younger club members

In that regard, the timing could scarcely be better, with the heroics of Healy and Tuthill providing proof for younger club members that it is possible to go all the way while representing Bandon.

“Ireland’s good showing at the European Championships and the Olympics was a real boost to athletics,” he says, “and having Phil, from a local perspective, gives it an extra boost.

“Nicola Tuthill is with UCD at the moment because of her scholarship, but her roots are in Bandon, that’s where she started with the hammer.

“Having those two role models for young people is a big thing. Both of them are really accessible – when we had the Catherine Duggan Memorial Sports Day in August, both of them were there all day, signing autographs and taking photographs with anybody that wanted one.”

“In Phil’s younger years, she didn’t win all of the races, but she was a late bloomer.

“It shows that, just because an athlete may not be winning at U9, U10 or U11, with perseverance and resilience it can happen for people later in their teenage years.”

The hope is that the new track can provide the nursery ground for the next generation of Bandon, and hopefully, Ireland stars. In addition, there is a spirit of sporting inclusiveness in O’Flynn’s hopes that the track can be useful for more than just the athletic club.

“We hope that other sporting organisations in the town would use it as well,” he says.

“Especially in the wintertime, when you don’t want to be running around a mucky field, it might make sense to go to the track and make use of the facilities.

“Then, during the daytime, it’ll be available to the schools of the town and the local branch of Special Olympics Ireland will have access to it too, so it should benefit the entire community.”