Claire McCarthy from Cork runs an Olympic qualifying time in the Prague Marathon

The Prague Marathon was held last Sunday the 8th of May 2016 in the Czech Republic with almost 5,800 runners taking part. The first Irish person home was Claire McCarthy of Leevale AC in Cork who ran an impressive time of 2h 42m 04s.

This was well inside the 2:45 Olympic qualifying time for the marathon in Rio. Claire's time however is unlikely to see her secure one of the three spots available for an Irish team.

These are the times posted already by Irish women and as you can see, Claire has the 6th fastest time...

Lizzie Lee        IRL    2:32:51    Berlin (GER)    27.09.2015
Fionnuala McCormack   IRL  2:33:15 Chicago IL (USA)    11.10.2015
Breege Connolly        IRL    2:37:29    London (GBR)    26.04.2015
Gladys Ganiel O'Neill    IRL    2:38:53    Sevilla (ESP)    21.02.2016
Barbara Sanchez        IRL    2:39:49    Sevilla (ESP)    21.02.2016
Claire McCarthy        IRL    2:42:04    Praha (CZE)    08.05.2016
Caitriona Jennings        IRL    2:44:33    Rotterdam (NED)    10.04.2016   

 If you're wondering just how fast that is then it's 6:11 per mile for 26.2 miles!

Claire was the 12th woman home and second in her category.

1 Cruz NONATA DA SILVA    2:41:09 F16    BRA    W40
2 Claire Mc CARTHY    2:42:04 F29    IRL    W40
3 Susanne Bornmar    2:59:43 F305    SWE    W40