All posts in Marathon

The organisers of the Dublin Marathon have issued an “almost full” warning.  Club members who are planning to run this year`s Marathon on Sunday October 28th are advised to enter NOW to avoid disappointment. Their is a strict limit on numbers and that limit is coming closer by the day. It would be a shame if your planning for taking in this year`s race were to fall at the first hurdle. ENTER TODAY, not “over the weekend”, not “next week” but instead right now use this link and DO IT NOW: http://sseairtricitydublinmarathon.ie/enter-marathon/

Stephen Scullion ran a superb Marathon in London this morning to take 12th place in a new pb of 2.15.55 inside the European Championship qualifying standard of 2.17.00 and a pb by over 2 minutes.

Gary O`Hanlon who as the National Marathon Champion was chasing 2.18.00 and in the early stages was looking good to achieve this but seemed to have suffered a bit over the second half finishing in 2.21.14.

On the subject of marathon runners Sergiu Ciobanu who has already achieved the standard was 2nd in Thursday`s Ballynotis 4 Mile in 19.22.

Also in London today Dermot Faughnan 2.58.45, Colm Leonard 3.30.12, Melissa Curran 4.17.27, Katie Hennigan 4.37.45, Caroline Hynes 4.39.01.

(London calling,  Colm Leonard with coach Eugene Coppinger and fan club, Karl Nolan)

At the Madrid Marathon Alan Curley 3.26.28, and in the Madrid 10k Ciara Peelo 44.29, Emer Brennan 49.56, Brid Beausang 52.08.

(The Madrid Three, Emer, Brid & Ciara)

National Marathon Champion Gary O`Hanlon is a man in a hurry! He was presented with his National Marathon Winners Trophy at the Athletics Ireland Awards lunch on Wednesday, he then travelled to Lanzorate to defend his Lanzorate International Marathon title. Yesterday the 9th, but did so in a new course record, breaking his own record from 2016: 2.27.20, and with a 9 minute winning margin to boot.

On his Facebook page Gary said:

“Delighted to win the Lanzorate Marathon and surprised to slice 8 minutes off my course record.Without doubt the toughest marathon course and conditions i’ve faced but loved every minute of it,i’ll be back. Enjoyed my few weeks break from training after the Dublin Marathon and look forward to start training for the London marathon starting tomorrow, now for a few beers.”

Only three weeks after his last marathon, the Dublin City Marathon on October 29th, Sergiu Ciobanu ran his third fastest marathon to date this morning in Valencia 2.16.05 for 17th place. This was some three minutes faster than Sergiu ran in Dublin, where he placed 2nd in the National behind Gary O`Hanlon, and is also a European Marathon QT and the third fastest Irish marathon of 2017 (behind Paul Pollock and Kevin Seaward).

Now that the dust has almost settled on last weekend`s National Marathon the results are now emerging, but with some (still) confusion. Athletics Ireland are of course correctly showing a Clonliffe 1, 2, 3, 4: National Champion Gary O`Hanlon, 2nd Sergiu Ciobanu, 3rd Stephen Scullion and 4th David Mansfield. It has been confirmed that Gary, Sergiu and Stephen will be presented with their Championship medals by Athletics Ireland at a suitable occasion. (Also very interesting that with Karl Nolan`s excellent 9th place Clonliffe had 5 in the top 10!)

In the team competition the Clonliffe team of Gary, Sergiu and Stephen are confirmed as National Champions with a combined time of 6.57.44.  Athletics Ireland also show Clonliffe as 2nd: David Mansfield, Karl Nolan and Robert Reid (7.52.31).

Robert Reid is 3rd M50.

In the Dublin County Championships, again there`s a Clonliffe 1, 2, 3 by Gary, Sergiu and Stephen with those three as Dublin team Champions, however, Dublin shows the Mansfield, Nolan and Reid trio as 3rd place team, which doesn`t seem to gel. Clarification hopefully soon.

Robert Reid doesn`t feature in the Dublin M50 results which again seems to be a mistake, as his time places him 1st.

In the Dublin womens team M35 the Clonliffe team of Emma Cooper, Maura Matthews and Alison O`Sullivan are Dublin Champions.

The extraordinary, evergreen, prolific, what ever adjective you`re having yourself, Gary O`Hanlon was 2nd in the National Marathon in a new PB of 2.18.54, 11th overall in the Dublin Marathon, behind Raheny`s Freddy Sittuk winner of the National title. This was Gary`s third Marathon in as many months and was his fastest.

Gary lead a Clonliffe train to the National team title: 3rd, defending champion Sergiu Ciobanu 2.19.06, 4th Stephen Scullion 2.19.45 and 5th David Mansfield 2.26.42.

Karl Nolan also had a stormer, having set himself a, some might say ambitious, sub 2.40 target, he smashed it! 2.39.22.

Other Clonliffe: Robert Reid, a PB of 2.46.24 and 3rd in the National M50, Conor Delaney 2.53.22, Dermot Faughnan 2.55.21, David Mullen 2.56.46, Shane Casey 2.58.26, Paul O`Loughlin 2.58.49, Matt McGuinness 3.02.56, Stephen Tracey 3.05.29, Wayne Walker 3.08.56, Alan Hughes 3.09.56 (5th National M55), Kevin Heffernan 3.10.25, Maurice McCrohan 3.13, a time that gets Maurice entry to the NYC marathon in his age group, Colm Leonard 3.14.44, a PB by a massive 10 minutes, James Dunne 3.19.13, Emma Cooper 3.23.39, Alan Worrall 3.26.43, Alan Townsend 3.29.03, Stephen Doyle 3.30.41, Mauraa Matthews 3.33.30, Ollie Power 3.35.48, Alison O`Sullivan 3.41.37, Andrew Eustace 3.42.13, Laura Kernan 3.44.55, Evelyn Brennan 3.48.00, Alan Monnelly 3.48.13, Aideen Brady 3.49.18, Emer Brennan 3.50.30, Damien Kelly 3.52.12, Ann Lyons 4.01.13, Fiachra Crean 4.14.40, Niall O`Connor 4.18.19, Mark Bermingham 4.18.48, Lorraine Sherwood 4.22.05, Tom Griffin 4.25.14, Ciara O`Regan 4.28.18 and completing the set of EVERY SINGLE DUBLIN CITY MARATHON Frank Behan 6.57.25

That`s all I can spot from the results on line. Errors or omissions text name and time to 0879599888

Gary O`Hanlon ran a magnificent race in this morning`s Berlin Marathon to record a new pb of 2:19.25. Gary took over 2 minutes off his pb to go sub 2:20, having gone through the half way in 69.32 to place 40th overall. The results also seem to record him as 1st M40. From Gary`s Facebook page he posted: “2:19 at age 43 in the Berlin Marathon, a personal best by 2 1/2 minutes finishing first over 40 in the worlds most competitive marathon. Delighted to be getting faster despite getting older, age is just a number. The key is to train smart, surround yourself with positive people and always believe in your own ability. Congrats to all the athletes I coach, smashing their times today. Special thanks to my training partners Seán Hehir and Eoin Callaghan, train hard race easy. This one’s for my son Ben who’s 3 months old today.”

Also in Berlin Paul O`Loughlin broke new ground going sub three for the first time, an excellent 2.59.24.

News in also of a great run by Robert Reid in clocking 2.47.24.