Cork runner Fearghal Curtin sets new personal best time in Copenhagen Half-Marathon in 60:22 - 14th Sept 2025

Fearghal Curtin of Youghal AC set a new personal best time of 60m 22s in the Copenhagen Half-Marathon on Sunday 14th of September 2025.

Name #race number Position Pace / km Time
Fearghal Curtin #17 (Ireland) 8 02:52 01:00:22

Fearghal was ranked in the start line as 17th in a field with five of the elites having personal best times under the hour and he finished the race in 8th place in the Danish capital.

Michael Harty was also competing in the same race and finished with an impressive time of 66m 10s

Michael Harty #157 | East Cork (Ireland) 68 03:08 01:06:10

This was just outside the time of 65:34 which he set recently in Antrim and was a new Irish M40 record.

As far as I know, this is a new Irish Half-Marathon record. The previous record was 60:51 which was jointly held by Efrem Gidey in the 2024 Copenhagen Half-Marathon and by Hiko Tonosa in Seville in January of 2025.

Copenhagen Half-Marathon cancelled after downpour

The annual Copenhagen half-marathon was held last weekend with some 20,000 runners taking part. It started innocently enough at 11:15am with clear skies and a temperature of about 14 deg C.

However during the race, the weather changed completely with a torrential downpour with lightning, rain, hail and snow. At the finish line, the timing mats were being washed away...

At roughly 1:30pm, the race was cancelled with the organisers issuing the following statement...“Due to thunderstorms, lightning strikes, massive hail and flooding in the starting and finish area and on parts of the course, the CPH Half was discontinued for the safety of all runners and spectators at 1:30 p.m.”.

There were also reports that a runner, a photographer and a race volunteer were hit by lightning. As you can see from the videos below, it really was something else...

Barbara Sanchez wins Copenhagen Marathon...

Barbara Sanchez of Raheny Shamrock AC won the Copenhagen Marathon today in a time of 2h 41m 17s, almost four minutes ahead of her nearest rival. Her time however was outside the 'A' standard of 2:37 that is required for the London Olympics.

As can be seen from her splits above, she was more or less on target for the first 20kms but the warm conditions made things more difficult in the second half of the race.

That also means that the final number of Irish women that have qualified for the London Olympic Marathon is four...
Catriona Jennings (Rathfarnham AC)...Rotterdam...2:36:14
Linda Byrne (Dundrum South Dublin AC)...Dublin...2:36:23
Ava Hutchinson (Dundrum South Dublin AC)...Houston...2:35:33
Maria McCambridge (Letterkenny AC)...Rome...2:36:37

However, Ireland can only send three. Who should go? It was supposed to have been decided on the 12th of June. However, at the launch of the Dublin City Marathon at the start of May, Maria McCambridge voiced this opinion..."I really think it's unfair to keep us waiting, I just wish they'd let us know as soon as possible." Linda Byrne said..."The British and everyone else have their (marathon) team picked by now so it would have been fairer if we had the selection in the next couple of weeks,".........while Caitriona Jennings said..."They should definitely be telling us earlier, even just for the sake of the three athletes who are going to be going so that they can finalise their training plans. June 12 is only about six weeks before the Olympic marathon, it's just crazy,".

Possibly as a result of this pressure, the selection date has been brought forward and it now looks as if it could be decided as early as Monday this week.

Who should go??? The criteria for selection are...."consistency and repeatability of performances in 2011/12; relevant statistical data/rankings; athletes “on-demand” performances at previous championships; competitive record of athletes against one another; and athletes “final phase” readiness". The problem with this system of course is that it is not open and transparent. By using certain criteria, you could justify any decision. The fairest way would be to send the fastest three.

Opinions?

Alan O'Shea of Cork finishes 2nd in Copenhagen Marathon

Alan O'Shea of Bantry AC finished 2nd in the Copenhagen Marathon last Sunday, the 23rd of May. The West Cork athlete who won the Cork City Marathon back in 2007, finished in Copenhagen in an impressive time of 2:22:52........a mere 23 seconds behind the winner and nearly 3 minutes ahead of the 3rd placed runner. That time of 2:22:52 works out at an average pace of 5:27 per mile!!

Alan's time at the Half-Marathon mark was 1:10:36 which works out at 5:23 per mile.

It's one thing to win a race over a short distance but to sustain that kind of pace over the full Marathon distance  is really impressive.