The IAAF World Half-Marathon Championships were held this year in Cardiff, Wales on Saturday the 26th of March 2016. While the elites were at the front end of the field, it was also a mass participation event with just over 12,000 taking part.
In the elite women's section, the only Irish woman taking part was Lizzie Lee from Cork. In wet and windy conditions, Lizzie posted a time of 75:36.
Women...
52nd Lizzie Lee (Leevale) 75:36
In the elite men's section, there was a full Irish team which finished 8th out of 14 teams.
Men
14th Paul Pollock (Annadale Striders) 62:46
41st Thomas Frazer (Crusaders) 65:20
42nd Kevin Seaward (St Malachy's) 65:23
50th Sergiu Ciobanu (Clonliffe Harriers) 66:30
Many of those taking part will also have their eyes firmly set on qualifying for the Olympics in Rio. Ireland can only send a team of 3 but more than that have already gone inside the qualifying time of 2h 19m.
Kevin Seaward IRL2:14:52 Berlin (GER) 27.09.2015
Mick Clohisey IRL2:15:11 Sevilla (ESP) 21.02.2016
Sergiu Ciobanu IRL2:15:14 Berlin (GER) 27.09.2015
Paul Pollock IRL2:15:38 Berlin (GER) 27.09.2015
Gary Thornton IRL2:17:19 Berlin (GER) 27.09.2015
Thomas Frazer IRL2:17:45 Rotterdam (NED) 12.04.2015
Sean Hehir IRL2:17:48 Berlin (GER) 27.09.2015
Looking at the times above, do the selectors send the three with the fastest marathon times? In that case, Paul Pollock would miss out but based on his performance in Cardiff, he is in great shape and faster than the other Irish runners by some margin. Whatever they decide, someone is going to be disappointed.
A number of runners from clubs in Cork also ran. The fastest of these was Tim O'Donoghue of East Cork AC who was just a bit slower than some of the elite Irish runners. Tim is in flying form at the moment having finished 2nd in the Dungarvan 10 mile in January and 4th in the Ballycotton 10 mile at the start of March.
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| Tim O'Donoghue |
These are some Cork club runners that broke 90 minutes in Cardiff....
Pos Name Cat Cat Pos Club GunTime Chip ChipTime
7 Tim O' Donoghue MS 7 East Cork AC 01:06:58 01:06:56
90 Conor McCauley MS 83 Leevale AC 01:14:54 01:14:47
140 Alan O'Brien MS 81 Eagle AC 01:14:44 01:14:42
144 Tony Kelleher M45 5 Togher AC 01:17:07 01:17:00
207 Eric Browne MS 176 Togher AC 01:19:10 01:19:02
246 John O'Callaghan M45 6 Eagle AC 01:20:14 01:20:05
301 Ronan Boland M50 5 Eagle AC 01:21:34 01:21:25
302 David Butler MS 238 St Finbarr's AC 01:21:35 01:21:28
364 David O'Keeffe MS 279 Togher AC 01:22:51 01:22:39
702 Killian O'Connor MS 412 Eagle AC 01:26:48 01:26:38
The results for the elite runners can be found HERE
The results for the non-elite runners can be seen HERE
Photos...(Updated Sun 27th @21:38)
1) Gearóid Ó Laoi has some nice photos HERE
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| Fall at the start of the elite men's race |
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| Some of the non-elites |
What happened to Sean Hehir?
ReplyDeleteIt is a sad reflection on the AAI that they could not have entered a ladies team and the race so near, a number of women would have welcomed the chance to represent their country surely.
ReplyDeleteThe runner with white cap who fell at the start won the race ...!!!!
ReplyDelete