Mick Clohisey broke the 2:15 marathon mark for the first time in Seville on Sunday (February 25), while a number of runners and athletes impress in the UK and on Irish soil.
Mick Clohisey ran a personal best time of 2:14.49 at the Seville Marathon, which will probably book his place at the European Championships in Berlin later this year.
The Raheny Shamrock runner bettered his previous best from 2016 of 2:15:11, which was also recorded on the streets of Seville.
Fellow Olympic marathoner Paul Pollock was also in road action. Pollock won the Brighton Half Marathon in 66:57, two weeks after running 65:40 in Barcelona.
Sean Hehir of Rathfarnham WSAF led home a record crowd at the annual Adare 10km in Co Limerick. Hehir won with over a minute to spare in 31 mins 22 secs. Second was Martin Hoare of Celbridge in 32:26, while third in 32.48 was Sean Doyle of An Bru.
Iveragh’s Grace Lynch was the first woman in 37.05. A total of 707 completed the race. Full result can be found here.
Stephen Kelly of Drogheda and District and Linda Byrne of Dundrum South Dublin were the winners at the Duleek and District 5km in Co Meath on Sunday. Kelly’s time of 15 mins 48 secs saw him just holding off Raheny’s Simon Ryan for victory. Byrne finished fifth overall in 17:48.
Cross Country
City of Derry’s Declan Reed and Rebekah Nixon of Dromore AC won the Northern Ireland and Ulster Senior Cross Country titles at Lurgan Park in County Armagh on Saturday.
In the women’s 6.6km race, Nixon caught defending champion Jessica Craig of North Down AC on the final lap and pulled away for the victory. North Down’s Rachel Gibson came through for second in the later stages of the race with Craig finishing third.
With two in the top three, North Down AC retained their team title ahead of Lagan Valley AC and Beechmount Harriers
After 4km of the men’s 12km, it was clear that the winner would come from the trio of Declan Reed, Mark McKinstry of North Belfast Harriers and Springwell’s Neil Johnston.
Reed made his move late in the race and finished comfortably clear of McKinstry, who was finishing second for the fourth time, and Johnston.
With six runners in the top eleven, City of Derry AC successfully defended their team title. North Belfast Harriers was second and Foyle Valley AC third.
Fionnuala Ross, who recently ran a 3k personal best in Armagh, was competing for Shettleston Harriers at Scottish National Cross Country Championships in Falkirk on Saturday. Ross clocked 38:51 for fifth over the 10k course.
Elsewhere, fellow Armagh native Danielle Fegan won team gold competing for Sale Harriers at the English National Cross Country Championships. Fegan finished 19th and was the Manchester club’s third counting runner at the Parliament Hill staged race.
Indoors
In Loughborough, at the Winter Throws Meeting, Kate O’Connor’s personal best 48.61m in the fifth round of the javelin broke the Northern Ireland U20 record.
O’Connor, the 17-year-old multi-eventer who heads for the Commonwealth Games next month, also threw 47.93m in the opening round and followed that up with 48.44m in the second round.
Her throw was a huge improvement on her previous best of 45.00 metres set last summer and ranks her fifth on the all-time Irish list.
Taking the 60m title at the UK U20 Champs in Sheffield over the weekend (24-25 February) was Ciara Neville of Emerald AC, who will compete at the World Indoors next weekend.
Although her time of 7.41 secs was off her best of 7.30 secs, she won both her heat and semi-finals as indeed did her Irish teammate Molly Scott of St LO’T’s who finished second in 7..45.
In the pole vault, City of Lisburn’s Ellie McCartney was equal second in a new Irish U 20 indoor record of 3.75m. In the 400m, Davicia Patterson of Beechmount Harriers ran 54.78 secs, becoming only the sixth Irish woman to go under 55 seconds indoors.
At the Grand Prix Glasgow on Sunday, long jumper Adam McMullan was off his personal best 7.99m from last weekend in Abbotstown with a jump of 7.79m for seventh place.
Northern Irish hurdler Megan Marrs finished fifth in her heat in Glasgow in 8.27 seconds. Marrs will compete for Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham later this week.
“That wasn’t what I was hoping for obviously but it was the first race of the year when I’ve had people ahead of me,” Marrs said afterwards. “That took me by surprise a little so I have to learn from it and use it to my advantage next weekend.
Also on Sunday, Ballina AC’s Hugh Armstrong finished third over at the Boston University Last Chance Meet clocking 14:18.18, while Kevin Cooper ran 4:05.66 over the mile.
Harry Purcell and Siofra Cleirigh Butter were both winners for Villanova at the Big East Indoor Championships at Staten Island on Saturday. Purcell, of Trim AC, won the 400m in a new indoor best of 47.4 secs to go third on the current Irish rankings.
Cleirigh Butter from the Dundrum South Dublin club, ran a season’s best 2:03.89 to win the 800m.
Trail
Carole Morgan was the first woman at the Glendalough Clover 80km. Her victory guarantees her a place on the Irish team for the World Trail Running Championships to be held in Spain next May.