There is much anticipation this year in Ireland within the Boxing World for the return of Katie Taylor to fight at Croke Park and within the athletics world, the excitement is equalled by the return of Jerome ‘Jinxy’ Farrell to his beloved Rostrevor to the now annual and established Rossi 5K in Rostrevor and part of the annual folk music and cultural festival which next year will celebrate its 40th birthday.
NAC stalwart Barry Og McConville is integral along with many hi viz hero’s along the way to the promotion and success of this event and this years entry was up 100 to 350 participants in 2025.
The four seater bus left Newcastle at 3.15 as the ‘maybes’ confirmed their maybe status by not taking part and as we approached Rostrevor from Santas Cottage Road, Jinxy had a story about every lamppost and field from his childhood, so much so that he would have given his brother in law ‘The Prophet’ a run for his money, who also isn’t short of a story or two.
Next time you are heading from Yellow Water to Rostrevor, there is a Keep Left sign and it also includes an inscription ‘Jinxy’ from his teenage years and when we arrived in Rostrevor he had no time for a warm up and instead used his celebrity status to catch up with old friends.
The Race
The route is around country roads past Rostrevor GAC ground of Petite Park where we were welcomed by a young bag piper, with a 2k uphill, 2k downhill and a 1K lash home from the Warrenpoint Road with a wee kicker at the end.
The last 100/200 metres was a cauldron of noise with locals full of encouragement whilst the enjoying what summer evenings should be before finishing under the finishing banner.
The Results
Young Harry McVeigh continued his recent good form and came home in second place and first junior with race won by Conor Morgan of NCR.
Kerry O’Flaherty continues to enjoy her racing and was First Lady home with Joanne Mills second and NAC athlete Ashlene Mussen having another impressive performance coming home in 3rd with husband Ciaran not far behind.
As mentioned earlier Harry was first junior with Connor McGeough in second and Oggie McVeigh having another great run completing the Junior Podium.
Other NAC runners who performed well in challenging conditions where Oran and Brian who finished sub 20 together with both lads having celebrated the birth of their second kids showing that sleep deprivation not being detrimental to their running performance.
Danny, Lorna & John with a combined age of 172, you do the maths all came home around 22 mins with John having completed the S2S 10K race the night before and had his left indicator on passing the Ghan Filling Station as was tempted to turn in for a Large 99!
Jinxy came home around 26 mins having enjoyed the course despite his lack of warm up and was looking forward to the post race hydration plan.
Post Race
With the music and buzz in the square after the race, NAC runners relocated and caught up in the sunshine for a bit of craic whilst enjoying a few drinks joined by Richard along with Remy & Ryan. Jinxy then had a story about waking up in the Crib outside the local chapel as a young lad as the stories continued.
Final thanks to all who organised and helped run this event. We will be back … maybe a 6 seater bus.
