Guest Post: New Era ...by Pat Walsh

 ** New Era **

Are we entering a new era in Irish Athletics? Hopefully

News today of Fearghal Curtin setting a new Irish Marathon record in South Korea at 2.07.54 is at the end of a fabulous year for our athletes. To put in perspective, John Treacy set a record in 1988 that stood for 36 years and now has been lowered 3 times by 3 different athletes in the last 12 months. Hiko Tonosa and Peter Lynch both broke the record before Fearghal today. 

Can we put the era of the greats of John Treacy, Gerry Kiernan and Danny Mc Daid finally behind us. Marvellous men but we need to see progress. These lads can push one another to new and better times.

The 800 metre event at the recent World Championships where Cian McPhillips and Mark English were a joy to watch and they have combined to lower the times in the 800 from the legendary Marcus O’Sullivan and David Matthews with records that have stood still for too long.

And watching Nicola Tuthill and Kate O’Connor set new heights in disciplines we have not previously been strong in, is fantastic as well. I know there are many more standout performances and these are but a handful.

We are a country with limited facilities and small population so to be producing world class is fantastic and testament to the great work being put into our athletes. 

On a personal level I’m delighted for Fearghal and his Dad, Noel, who shared the GAA fields in Castlemartyr colours and running roads with me for more years than I care to mention. Also Mr Martin Drake,  Youghal AC must be the proudest man in Ireland today to see the colours and name of the club on a National Record Holder. 

For you and I, it is times and achievements we can never aspire to, but we can do our best. Be the best you.

Remember, Fearghal ran the Dungarvan 10 mile and the Cork City 10k on the day of the marathon this year.

We can run the same roads as these people and help them with good wishes and supporting the clubs that are nurturing this talent.  Times and performances like these bring a lift to the spirits of all of us 

Have a lovely weekend.

#pwr

Fearghal Curtin from Youghal wins South Korea Marathon in a new national record time of 2:07:54

Fearghal Curtin from Youghal won the Gyeongju International Marathon overnight in South Korea in a time of 2h 07m 54s! This was also a new Irish national record for the marathon (Record subject to ratification).

The elite field for the race included nine runners with PBs under 2:08 (including two sub-2:06!).

1st Fearghal Curtin (Ireland) 2:07:54
2nd Antenayehu Dagnachew Yisma (Ethiopia) 2:10:33
3rd Stanley Kiprotich Bett (Kenya) 2:11:07 

Fearghal's time of 2:07:54 is 1m 42s faster than Peter Lynch's time set in Dusseldorf earlier this year.

These are now the top 5 fastest Irish marathon times...

1 2:07:54 Fearghal Curtin Gyeongju 18 Oct 2025 (TBC)
2 2:09:36 Peter Lynch Düsseldorf 27 Apr 2025
3 2:09:42 Tonosa Hiko Dublin 27 Oct 2024
4 2:09:49 Stephen Scullion London 04 Oct 2020
5 2:09:56 John Treacy Los Angeles 12 Aug 1984

Fearghal also ran a new Irish half-marathon record of 60:22 last month so he is really on fire at the moment.

Green & White hoops of Youghal AC in Korea

Commanding lead in the closing stages

Thanks to John Walshe who kindly sent on the following...

Almost 16 years ago, on December 1st, 2009, the following appeared on the back page of the Irish Examiner County – and he’s still proudly wearing the Green & White Youghal colours!

Korean Report. 19/10/2025

1st and foremost, Fearghal and all the curtin family are deeply grateful to everybody at Youghal Ac for the literally thousands of greetings over the last couple of days. It demonstrates the sense of community within the club and the healthy state we are in.❤️

Fearghal arrived in korea in good shape after his 60.22 half marathon in September. He spent almost 4 weeks at font Romeu(at altitude) preparing for this event.He arrived in korea 6 days before the race to acclimatise to the 8-hour time difference. He went to the line as part of a 16-man elite international field that received invitations to the race.  He was the only non african so easy to spot😁His marathon ranking was near the bottom with his recorded 2.11 in April. Lots of 2.06, 2.07, 2.08 guys there.  Fearghal did mention beforehand that this race is not normally won in a fast time as it is a technical course, no pacemakers and when there's a big purse, the Africans tend to take a more cagey approach. Fearghal definitely felt he had a chance here. His prediction was correct as the race went off at a pedestrian pace for this level.  Fearghal was not in the mood for playing poker with these guys! He was confident in his ability and fitness, so he took on the race after 800mtrs. A move like this at such an early stage, in such a long race, is normally sporting suicide. The other runners most likely thought he would blow, but as we all know, the opposite, in fact, happened. Fearghal covered the 2nd half of this marathon running at 2hrs 5mins 48sec pace and as they say, the rest is history! He also broke the course record for this race.

The event was aired live on national TV in Korea. I was speaking to 1 of the Korean journalists after the race and she said the commentators didn't know anything about him, but 1 of them googled his name and found a report that was published on The  Examiner  last week and the content of that article kept them going. The examiner now has millions of new followers in Korea😅as does Fearghal😁

We were treated so very well by the organisers, and they definitely want us back😅

Fearghal is now planning to do back to back marathons. Next up is Singapore in 7 weeks. 

There won't be any records there. It's usually won in 2.14  2.15 because it's hot, humid, and hilly. It's all part of fearghal's plan to run on technically difficult courses so that when he eventually gets his chance in a global championship, he can actually compete rather than being just happy to qualify.

On a different note,

 It's particularly pleasing to me to see the resurgence of underage success in the club. 

Success breeds success so hopefully Fearghal, the outstanding Ruby Devereux, the "dream team" Avril  Emma cashies & Co and all the up and coming stars can pave the way to keep the green & white on the map

Regards to all at youghal AC

Noel Curtin

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.

Guest Post: ANOTHER FINE RUN FROM FEARGHAL CURTIN ...By John Walshe

ANOTHER FINE RUN FROM FEARGHAL CURTIN ...By John Walshe

Competing in one of the most iconic of Fourth of July road races, Fearghal Curtin today (Friday) finished a highly credible 14th at the Peachtree 10km held on the streets of Atlanta, Georgia.

Winner over the same distance at the Cork City 10km on June 1st, Fearghal – again in his Youghal colours - was almost a minute faster on this occasion as his time of 28:54 wasn’t too far off his PB of 28:24 which he recorded in more favourable conditions in Spain two years ago.

With the temperature already in the high 20s when the race began at 6.50am, the Peachtree course is a point-to-point one which includes a number of challenging hills. This did not deter winner Patrick Kiprop from setting a hectic pace, averaging 4:16 per mile for the first half of the race. Despite fading fast as the finish approached, Kiprop held on for a four second victory over his fellow Kenyan Vincent Langat in a time of 27:35.

The women’s race was even closer with Helen Obiri, also Kenya, piping Senayet Getachew from Ethiopia by one second, 31:29 to 31:30.  

The first six men were all from Kenya with just one American in the top ten. Fearghal’s impressive performance can be gauged from the fact that he was just four places behind Pat Tiernan from Australia who has a marathon best of 2:07:45. The official results show that Fearghal placed 14th out of a total of 43,003 finishers!

First held in 1970 when just 110 finished, this year an estimated 52,000 entered. That inaugural race was won by Jeff Galloway who would go on to compete at the Munich Olympics two years later and would now be well-known to many runners for his training programmes and published books.

Just two Irishmen have won the race, Eddie Leddy (29:52) in 1979 and John Doherty (27:56) in 1986. John Treacy was fifth in the 1992 event in a time of 28:39.

Fearghal Curtin earlier this year when he won the John Treacy 10-mile in Dungarvan

Fearghal Curtin’s invitation to Peachtree came as a result of his performances this year which has seen him record times of 2:11:35 for the marathon and 61:12 for the half. He now heads to Flagstaff, Arizona, for a spell of altitude training. From there he hopes to fulfil a second invitation, this time to another famous race, the Beacon to Beacon 10km in Maine on August 2nd.

This was founded back in 1998 by Joan Benoit-Samuelson, winner of the first women’s Olympic Marathon in 1984. The idea was to give back to her own community by staging a world-class road race in Maine and including a charitable component to help support local children. The race draws top athletes from around the globe and features 6,500 runners, 800+ volunteers and thousands of spectators.

According to its website, the picturesque 6.2-mile course in Cape Elizabeth begins near the entrance to Crescent Beach State Park, winds along tree-lined streets and ocean vistas, ending 6.2 miles later in Fort Williams at the historic Portland Head Light, the most photographed lighthouse in the world.

Hopefully that green and white Youghal vest with its own distinctive logo depicting the town’s lighthouse will again feature amongst the elites on the American road racing circuit in a month’s time.

Cork runner Fearghal Curtin from Youghal runs 2:11 in the 2025 Dusseldorf Marathon

Back at the start of April 2025, Fearghal Curtin from Youghal finished 5th in a field of 19,443 runners at the 2025 Berlin Half-Marathon.

On Sunday the 27th of April 2025, he was back in action at the Dusseldorf Marathon where he finished in 4th place with a time of 2h 11m 35s.

As far as I know, this would put him in the top 10 Irish men in terms of marathon finish times.

Cork runner Fearghal Curtin finishes 5th in Berlin Half-Marathon

The Berlin Half-Marathon is one of the largest half-marathons in Europe and this year, it was held on the 6th of April 2025 with a total of 19,443 finsihers.

Cork runner Fearghal Curtin from Youghal had a great race finishing in 5th place overall.

 1 Diriba, Gemechu Dida (ETH) 58:43
2 Lodung, Richard Etir (KEN) 59:30
3 Petros, Amanal (GER) Hannover 59:31
4 Ringer, Richard (GER) Rehlingen 1:00:51
5 Fearghal, Curtin (IRL) 1:01:12
6 Aizawa, Akira (JPN) 1:01:20
7 Diaz, Carlos (CHI) 1:21
8 Kiprotich, Gideon (KEN) 1:01:25
9 Kithuku, Joshua (KEN) 1:41 
10 Koech, Robert Kiprop (KEN) 1:01:49 

Here are his splits for the 5, 10 & 15km marks...

As you can see, his average pace for each 5km splits was well under 15 minutes!

Fearghal's time of 1:01:12 is just 15 seconds outside the Irish Half-Marathon record which was set by Martin Fagan in 2009.

Half Marathon 1:00:57 Martin Fagan The Hague NL 14.03.09

Fearghal was the winner of this years John Treacy Dungarvan 10-mile road race when he set a new course record of 47m 42s.

Guest Post: FEARGHAL CURTIN BACK IN TOP FORM ...by John Walshe

Fearghal (left) on the podium

FEARGHAL CURTIN BACK IN TOP FORM ... By John Walshe

After missing most of the year due to injury, Youghal athlete Fearghal Curtin finished off 2024 in style with a brilliant second place on New Year’s Eve at the São Silvestre da Amadora race in Portugal.

Over a hilly course of 10.270km, Ferghal finished just three seconds behind the winner, Rúben Amaral. The Portuguese runner had set a course record of 30:19 the year before but on this occasion had to run 51 seconds faster to hold off the Irishman as they recorded respective times of 29:28 and 29:31.

Fearghal was proudly wearing his Youghal colours, which are similar to the Sporting Club of Portugal – a branch of the famous Sporting Lisbon football club – that Amaral was running for. So he relished in the support received from the thousands lining the course, who thought the Youghal man was one of their own!

After a great start to 2024 when he recorded a very impressive half-marathon time of 61:45 in Houston, Fearghal had one of the big city marathons in mind but recurring injury problems ruled that out. Back home in Killeagh for Christmas from Wales where he is based, he didn’t slacken off in his training before travelling to Portugal, clocking up a total of 112 miles in the previous week.

Fearghal Curtin, in his Youghal colours, finishing second behind winner Amara

The São Silvestre da Amadora has a chequered history and is the oldest event on the athletics calendar of mainland Portugal. First held in 1975, this was the 49th edition. Winner of that inaugural race was Carlos Lopes, who also won in 1983 and 1986. He would, of course, go on to win the 1984 Olympic Marathon title at Los Angeles ahead of John Treacy.

Two other Olympic champions amongst the women’s winners are Rosa Mota (marathon 1988) and Fernanda Ribeiro (10,000m 1996). The latter – who finished second to Sonia O’Sullivan in the 1995 World Championship 5000m – notched up six victories in row between 1993 and 1998.

There was an extensive prize list on New Year’s Eve, with both winners receiving €1,500. Awards went down to the 25th finisher (both male and female) who received €50 each. There was a entry of almost 2,600 for the race which commenced at 6pm.

All finisher received a medal and - which may raise a few eyebrows to runners here at home -the entry fee up until mid-October was just €12. 

Fearghal Curtin of Youghal AC run 14:02 5k in Florida

Fearghal Curtin of Youghal AC smashed his personal best with a time of 14m 02s to finish second in  the men’s 5000m at the Florida Relays recently. Fearghal who is 19 years old knocked over a minute off his previous best of 15m 19s set in June 2016.

The former Midleton CBS student is in his first year at Charleston Southern University in South Carolina.