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| Tom Keane and Denis O'Reilly with winner of the Nenagh Half Marathon, Ava Crean |
Sunday the 22nd of February 2026 was a busy day for races in Munster with the Kinsale 10-mile, the Adare 10k and the Nenagh Half-Marathon & 10k.
The numbers in Nenagh were really quite exceptional this year. The Nenagh Half is a relatively new event and in 2025, it had 304 finishers in the half... a modest number of finishers which put it in 62nd place for the top half marathons in Ireland in 2025.
The 2026 event saw the numbers surge to 711 finishers, well over double the numbers for the previous year. This puts it on track to be the largest half-marathon in Tipperary by years end.
The 10k also saw a substantial surge with a 44% jump from 311 to 448 finishers.
I suspect one of the main reasons for the surge is the apparent rise in the number of runners in Limerick with more events appearing on the calendar.
It's all the more appropriate that the first woman in the half was 19-year old Ava Crean from Limerick with a time of 74m 16s. Ava is the current Irish national marathon champion after taking the title at the Dublin marathon last October.
1 Chris JENKEN 01:08:53 01:08:53 983 M MS Derg A.C.
2 David MEEHAN 01:10:00 01:10:00 979 M MS TULLA AC
3 John KINSELLA 01:10:27 01:10:27 2032 M MS Back 2 Boston Running Club A.C.
4 Peter SOMBA 01:11:24 01:11:24 2034 M MS
5 Danny MULLINS 01:12:00 01:12:00 257 M MS Bantry A.C.
6 Ava CREAN 01:14:16 01:14:16 2031 F FS Back 2 Boston Running Club A.C.
8 Dee GRADY 01:16:08 01:16:08 981 F F40 Ennis Track A.C.
16 Andrea AZA VILLAMOR 01:22:01 01:22:02 80 F FS Glanmire A.C.
28 Eilis RYAN 01:24:02 01:24:03 345 F FS Newport A.C.
38 Jane HUGHES 1:25:12 01:25:17 289 F FS
Full results HERE
As you can see from the top 5 above, Danny Mullins of Bantry AC finished in 5th place in the men's race while Andrea Aza Villamor of Glanmire AC was the 3rd woman home.
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