from munster Express website by James Veale
David McCarthy of West Waterford AC and Providence College made more sports headline news this week when he was named as the Crown Plaza Athlete of the Month for April. This award is a newly-introduced Athletics Ireland national awards scheme which recognises the outstanding performances of Irish athletes throughout the year. The sponsorship was only recently announced by Athletics Ireland in association with Crown Plaza Hotels.
David has had a terrific year to date, including his terrific performance at the Mt SAC Relays in Mt San Antonio College in California on April 17. Running in his first ever 5,000m in the USA, the young Ballinamult man showed a clean pair of heels to a top-class field when winning in a time of 13:42.11.
This performance was of the highest calibre when you consider only a handful of Irish athletes have run anywhere near this time in recent years, and only Alistar Cragg, Mark Carroll and Martin Fagan have run faster over the last three years.
David continued his fantastic start to the season when he finished second in the 1,500m at the Big East championships in a time of 3:42.34 on May 3, well inside his previous best of 3:43.94 set in Watford last June.
At the Penn Relays some weeks later the former St Augustine’s College student ran in the 4×1-mile relay, clocking an excellent time of 4:02.1 – the fastest mile-time recorded by any athlete in the finals – and his efforts helped his Rhode Island college to third overall.
Prior to the above mentioned races, in February David became the first Waterford man to break the four-minute-mile barrier when he finished fourth in the final of the NCAA Indoor mile in 3:57.75. The accountancy student was also voted 2008 sportsperson of the year at Providence College, where he is coached by Villerstown’s Ray Treacy, and received the Park Hotel (Dungarvan) award for February.
https://www.munster-express.ie/sports/athletics/another-award-for-david-mccarthy
