North Cork AC recently announced that they would be hosting the 2024 National Half-Marathon Championships. They write... "We are delighted to officially announce that the Charleville International Half Marathon has been awarded the hosting of the Irish National Half Marathon Championships for 2024. A proud moment for North Cork AC and one we very much look forward to."
In this post, we'll look at the recent history of the championships and what the impact of hosting the 2024 might be.
From 2013 to 2019, the National Half-Marathon was associated with the commercial Rock n Roll Half-Marathon which was held in Dublin every August.
This was a big event with bands playing music out along the course and it attracted large crowds with all of its razzmatazz. Athletics Ireland reportedly made a lot of money out of it as well every year.
When the Rock 'n' Roll event came to an end in 2019, it meant that Athletics Ireland had to find another race in 2020. As things turned out with the lockdown, there was no championships in 2020 or 2021.
In 2022, the Ratoath Half-Marathon in Co Meath was picked as the National Championships. In 2023, it was the Tullamore Half-Marathon in Co Offaly.
What difference does it make??? ... When North Cork AC that they were going to host the 2024 event then I was wondering what difference does hosting a national championship make?
As Tullamore was the most recent one, I had a look at the numbers taking part and I got this chart...
In 2023, there were a total of 1177 finishers in the Tullamore Half-Marathon. This is up nearly 40% on the figure of 842 for 2022.
As can be seen from the chart, the big jump stands out from all of the previous years and certainly suggests that hosting the national half-marathon championships probably attracted an additional 300 or so runners.
It suggests that Charleville is likely to get a similar boost of maybe 300 runners next September.
It's also worth noting that Charleville is the third venue in as many years. It's likely that the 2025 event will be hosted by another club.
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