Irish results from the 2019 Barcelona Half-Marathon - Sun 10th Feb 2019

The annual Barcelona Half-Marathon in February is a hugely popular race with runners from all over Ireland taking part every year. 2019 was no exception with 255 Irish runners listed in the results.

A total of 16,418 runners from all over Europe took part, many no doubt looking for a welcome break from the cold weather to run in nice mild conditions. Add in the modest costs of flights, food and accommodation and it can work out as a reasonable alternative to say Dublin or one of the cities in the UK.

The Irish results are shown below with plenty of runners from Cork listed....

Lizzie Lee from Cork runs PB to qualify for the World Half-Marathon Championships

 

Lizzie Lee of Leevale AC ran a new personal best time of 73:23 over the weekend in the Barcelona Hlaf-Marathon to qualify for the World Half-Marathon Championships in Valencia at the end of March. This was an improvement of 4 seconds for the 37 year-old Cork athlete who joins her club mate Claire McCarthy who qualified in Swansea last Summer.


Full results

Eddie Gallen runs new unofficial Irish 12 hour record in Barcelona

At an Ultra running race in Barcelona last weekend, Eddie Gallen set a new unofficial Irish 12 hour record of 135kms. The previous best of 131kms was set by Grellan McGrath from Cork in Belfast in 2014.

Eddies time works out as an average pace of 8:36 minute mile pace.

2    134,997m    Gallen    Eddie    M    IRL    11/12/1962    T    19/12/2015    Barcelona, ESP

In the 24 hour race, Susan McCarthy was the first of the Irish and just got over the 100 mile barrier.

26    165,013m    Mccartney    Susan    F    IRL    29/03/1977    T    19/12/2015    Barcelona, ESP

66    120,368m    Brownlie    Tim    M    IRL    28/07/1979    T    19/12/2015    Barcelona, ESP

90    73,096m    Ankers    Brian    M    IRL    21/02/1980    T    19/12/2015    Barcelona, ESP

The full results can be seen HERE

Florence Kiplagat sets new Half-Marathon record in Barcelona while Lizze Lee of Leevale AC finishes second

The Barcelona Half-Marathon was held on Sunday the 15th of February. In the womens race, Florence Kiplagat of Kenya won the womens race in a time of 65m 09s, beating her own record of 65m 12s which she set at the same race 12 months ago.

Lizzie Lee of Leevale AC finished in second place in a time of 74m 06s despite an old injury flaring up on the last few miles.

Photo : Gearóid Ó Laoi

Rob Heffernan awarded European Bronze medal at ceremony in Cork

In 2010 at the European Championships in Barcelona, Stanislav  Emelyanov won the 20 km walking race. Rob Heffernan finished 4th in that race. In July of 2014, the Russian was found to have been doping and his European gold medal position was declared void. As a result, Rob Heffernan was moved up into 3rd place and a bronze medal.

Rob was presented with the European Bronze medal at a ceremony in Cork City Hall on Friday the 19th of December at 6pm.


In a recent interview, Rob Heffernan said...."I've always performed, but if you don't have a medal, nobody cares."

Another twist to this story is that the Italian Alex Schwazer who should have been moved up into gold position isn't exactly clean either and is currently being investigated for doping. If that is upheld then there could be another medal ceremony in the future for Rob.
 

Extra...
1) Article in the Irish Examiner

Is Rob Heffernan going to get a European Silver medal???

Back in late July, I had a post up about how the Russian race walker Stanislav Emelyanov had been caught due to violations to his biological passport. This meant that his results since before 2010 would no longer be counted. In 2010 at the European Championships in Barcelona, Emelyanov won the 20 km walking race. Rob Heffernan finished 4th in that race. With Emelyanov eliminated, Rob moved up in 3rd place and a bronze medal.

At the start of August, I had a post up which raised some doubts about whether the Italian in second place would actually get the medal?

The following piece appeared on an Italian website today...4th Sept 2014....(It's translated by Google Translate but you'll get the gist)...
The former marcher Alex Schwarzer , the doctors of the Italian Federation of Athletics Joseph Fischetto and Pierluigi Fiorella , the former manager of the technical Fidal , Rita Bottiglieri . These are investigated for doping at the conclusion of the investigation by the Prosecutor of Bolzano . Apart from the walker , the other three are accused of aiding and abetting under the law on doping. Investigators allege that the South Tyrolean champion the use of doping between February 2010 and 2012: for this reason , in all probability , will also be canceled medal of the European Championships in Barcelona, ​​assigned all'altoatesino after the disqualification of the winner Russian Emelyanov . A Schwarzer is not only challenged the use of epo , but also numerous other substances ( all made from testosterone) found in the fridge of the sample , which would be procured via the Internet. Have been withdrawn, but still remain to be evaluated, the positions of the other suspects : Francesco Conconi , director of the Center biomechanical studies applied to the sport of Ferrara , Christian Thuile , chief of complementary medicine in Merano, Michele Didoni , coach Schwarzer , and the horseman Karl Wechselberger . The investigation on them, are continuing.

It would seem as if Rob is heading for a European Silver.

Will Rob Heffernan be getting a European Bronze or Silver?

Last Wednesday, it was announced that Rob Heffernan should be getting a bronze medal after the Russian Stanislav Emelyanov was caught for doping. Rob had finished 4th in the 20k walk race at the European Championships in Barcelona in 2010.

Now the spotlight has changed to the Italian Alex Schwazer who isn't exactly squeaky clean having been excluded from the 2012 Summer Olympics in London after an "adverse result" from a doping test. After that, Schwazer said "My career is finished...I wanted to be stronger for this Olympics, I made a mistake" and then announced his retirement from athletics.


This article in Italian appeared online yesterday...shown via Google Translate so the grammar may be off a bit but you get the gist.

ANSA) - Bolzano, 31 Jul - After the news of the gold medal taken away at the Russian European champion Stanislav Emelyanov for doping and reassigned to Alex Schwarzer, the prosecutor in Bolzano proceed with investigations to ensure that the athlete is not presented in its South Tyrol Once irregularities in the biological passport even for the period of the Europeans in the summer of 2010. Meanwhile, with regard to the investigation of London 2012, the Prosecution could announce the conclusion of the investigation next week.

Rob Heffernan to get another bronze medal due to Russian getting caught?

There is news at the moment that the Russian race walker Stanislav Emelyanov has been caught due to violations to his biological passport. His results since before 2010 will no longer be counted.

In 2010 at the European Championships in Barcelona, Emelyanov won the 20 km walking race. Rob Heffernan finished 4th in that race. If the suspension is confirmed then Rob should be moved up in 3rd place and a bronze medal.

15:45...From Rob Heffernan on Twitter...
Unofficially being told that I  am going to receive the BRONZE medal for Euro Champs 2010 20km after Russian has been done for drugs.

Feidhlim Kelly writing for the Irish Examiner has an interesting article about it HERE

How much is an Olympic Gold medal worth?

How much is an Olympic Gold medal worth?

This item appeared for sale on Ebay recently...the Olympic gold medal from the 1992 Barcelona Games for Ivan Ivanov, the Bulgarian weightlifter.

The asking price is £29,000.

Florence Kiplagat from Kenya sets new world record for the half-marathon

At the Barcelona Half-Marathon last Sunday (16th Feb 2014), Florence Kiplagat from Kenyan set new world record when she won the race in a time of 65:12. The previous record of 65:50 was set by compatriot Mary Keitany in February 2011. Kiplagat's fastest time over the distance before Sunday was 66:38.

In a post race interview, she said..."This is a not a day I will forget, I'm so happy. The circuit was very fast and I really want to thank my pace makers, Marc Roig and Stanley Siroro, they did a great job. I felt so well from the beginning and the weather was perfect, so I had the feeling that this could be a special day."

These are now the top 6 fastest times for women in the half-marathon...
65:12  Florence Kiplagat   Kenya February 16th 2014 Barcelona
65:50  Mary Keitany     Kenya February 18, 2011    Ras al-Khaimah
66:25  Lornah Kiplagat     Netherlands October 14, 2007    Udine
65:40  Paula Radcliffe     United Kingdom September 21, 2003 South Shields
65:44  Susan Chepkemei     Kenya    April 1, 2001 Lisbon
66:44  Elana Meyer     South Africa January 15, 1999 Tokyo

Derval O’Rourke say drugs cheat Yanit robbed her of European gold

Following on from the news last Wednesday that Turkish athlete Nevin Yanit has been banned for two years for failing a drugs test, Derval O'Rourke gave an interview to the Irish Examiner. In it, she said that she believed that Yanit was most likely to have been using drugs when she won the 100m hurldles final at the European Athletic Championships in Barcelona in 2010. In that competition, Derval finished second and won the silver after setting a new national record of 12.65 seconds.

In the interview, Derval said ......"It’s not as if she was just on drugs this year. In the last two years previous she has been European outdoor [100m hurdles] champion twice [Barcelona in 2010 and Helsinki 2012], fifth in the Olympics [London] and she won indoors [Gothenburg] this year. "

The full interview by Feidhlim Kelly can be seen HERE