Cork’s Joe O’Flynn was a deserving recipient of the Official of the Year award at the Awards Dinner in the Crowne Plaza on Saturday. Today at Jury’s Hotel in Cork another official was the recipient of the Cork City Sports Athletics award for the month of October.

It is surely safe to say that John ‘Mr. Ballycotton’ Walshe is as worthy a winner as any of the great athletes who have been honoured at this event in the past.

Speaking at the lunch reception in Jurys, Evening Echo Sports Editor John McHale told the gathering that in all his years as Editor he had not come across a more humble and obliging person as John Walshe.

John Walshe has been organising road races in and around his beloved Ballycotton for decades. As a race organiser he is regarded by everyone as an athletes man and no step is left unturned by him in his efforts to ensure that everything possible is done to make their racing experience the best ever.

John is probably best known throughout the length and breadth of Ireland as the organiser of the famous Ballycotton 10, a race that was there long before the running boom began, and a race that has grown in stature year after year, so much so that there are now entry limits, and that limit is reached within hours of the entry forms becoming available.

Evening Echo Editor John McHale was glowing in his address about John Walshe, as was Cork City Sports Chairman Dick Hodgins.

In reply John Walshe said he was honoured and humbled to be the recipient of this prestigious award, following in the footsteps of Derval O’Rourke in September and Olive Loughnane in August. He thanked everyone for the award as well as his family and friends who had supported him so well over the past 30 years.