Irish results from the European 24 hour championships in France

The European 24 hour championships were held in Albi in France last weekend on Sat 22nd and Sun 23rd Oct 2016. While there was just one woman on the Irish team, there was 5 in the men's event.

Amy Masner finished in 17th out of 77 contestants with just over 133 miles completed.

Pos.    Bib     Name Surname     Team     Laps     Last lap time     Total distance     Avg speed km/h
17     248     Masner Amy     IRELAND    194     23:53:13     215,310     8,97 km/h

In the men's 24 hour race, Eddie Gallen was the best of the Irish with about 144 miles covered. Aidan Hogan of Rising Sun AC in Cork was just behind Eddie with 138 miles which is pretty amazing considering it was just his second 24 hour race ever. His first one was last June in Belfast when he took Silver in the Irish 24 hour championships.

Pos.    Bib     Name     Surname     Team     Country Laps     Last lap time     Total distance     Avg speed km/h
25    56    Gallen    Edward        IRELAND    203    23:54:27    225,564        9,40 km/h
26    57    Hogan    Aidan        IRELAND    201    23:58:46    222,453        9,27 km/h
41    59    O'Loughlin Daragh    IRELAND    186    23:58:24    205,984        8,58 km/h
54    58    Keith    Eoin        IRELAND    178    20:39:54    196,835        8,20 km/h
75    60    O'Regan    John        IRELAND    146    19:22:47    161,443        6,73 km/h

The Irish men's team finished in a very respectable 9th out of 18 teams.

Another contestant of Irish interest was Thomas Bubendorfer of Star of the Laune AC in Kerry who was running for his native Austria.

63    1    Bubendorfer    Thomas    AUSTRIA    170    23:53:36    189,045    7,88 km/h

The full results can be downloaded as a zipped file HERE

Rob Heffernan wins French Indoor Title...28th Feb 2016

Rob Heffernan was in action last weekend at the French Indoor Championships where he finished first in the 5000m walk in a time of 19m 40s.

Rob was competing for the French club SPN Vernon of Normandy.

1 19'40''21 HEFFERNAN Robert (IRL)    Spn Vernon
2 19'45''22 BLANCHETEAU Jean    Athle Bourgogne Sud
3 20'43''90 BERNABE Fabien    Sco Ste-marguerite Marseille

Full results

The race video is shown below. Rob is in the red top and green shorts. The video follows another athlete but you can see Rob in the early stages.

5000m marche- Championnats de France élites- Aubière- 28/02/2016

Irish teams announced for the European Cross Country Championships

Following on from the National Inter-Club Cross Country Championships in Dublin yesterday, the Irish teams for the European Cross Country Championships in France were announced today.

Men's senior team: Mick Clohisey  [Raheny Shamrock AC], John Coghlan [Metro St Brigids AC], Paul Pollock [Annadale Striders AC], Ryan Creech [Leevale AC], Joe Sweeney [Dundrum South Dublin AC], Sergiu Ciobanu [Clonliffe Harriers AC]

Women's senior team: Fionnuala McCormack [Kilcoole AC], Lizzie Lee [Leevale AC], Caroline Crowley [Crusaders AC], Kerry O'Flaherty [Newcastle & District AC], Ciara Durkan [Skerries AC], Michelle Finn [Leevale AC]

Men's junior team: Kevin Mulcaire [Ennis track AC], Peter Lynch [Kilkenny City Harriers AC], Jack O’Leary [Mullingar Harriers AC], Cathal Doyle, James Edgar [City of Lisburn AC], Pierre Murchan [Celtic AC],

Women's junior team: Hope Saunders [Clonliffe Harriers AC], Aoibhe Richardson [Kilkenny City Harriers AC], Isabel Carron [Skerries AC], Deirdre Healy [Ratoath AC], Nadia Power [Templeogue AC], Sophie Murphy [Dundrum South Dublin AC]

The U23 teams will be announced at a later date.

Behind every member of the Irish team is of course a coach. A number of them have the same coach...
Donie Walsh...3, Jerry Kiernan 2, Joe Cooper 2 & Noel Richardson 2.

Carmel Parnell from Cork wins 2nd Gold at World Masters Athletics Championships in France

The World Masters Athletics Championships are currently being held in the South-East of France. Last week, Carmel Parnell from Cork won Gold in the W60 category in the womens 8000m.

The Leevale AC athlete has now won a second Gold after  finishing first in the Womens 10,000m...

W60 10000 Meter Run
1Parnell Carmel, Ca W60 Ireland 40:29,86
2 Combes, Dominique W60 France 42:16,59
3Bourgeois, Alison W62 Great Britai 42:46,77

This brings Carmel's medal tally at this World Championships to three as she also took a Silver recently in the 5,000m.

W60 5000 Meter Run
  1  Zentner, Lidia     W62 Germany   19:57,32   2
  2  Parnell Carmel, Ca W60 Ireland   20:13,66   2
  3  Bourgeois, Alison  W62 Great Britain  21:41,19   2

Fionnuala Britton finishes 5th in cross country race in France...

Fionnuala Britton of Ireland was in action on Sunday at the Cross de l'Acier 2014 cross country race in France. While she may have finished 5th, the main thing is that she was the second European athlete and only four seconds behind the current European cross country champion Sophie Duarte.

With the 2015 Euro Cross Country coming up in Bulgaria in early December, the signs are good that Fionnuala may be close to a podium finish. Will she win? If I had to guess then I'd say no. I don't think Duarte will retain her title either. The one to watch may well be Britain's Gemma Steel who is having an excellent year.

The race will take place on Sunday the 14th of December.

Sarah McCormack finishes 17th out of 66 at European Mountain Running Championships

The European Mountain Championships were held in Gap, France last Saturday the 12th of July 2014. There were a number of Irish competitors taking part but the best performance was by Sarah McCormack who was also part of the Irish team that won gold at the European Cross Country Championships back in 2012.


Sarah also takes part in some local trail races in Cork having finished first at the Knockaroura race near Mallow at the start of July.

The senior Irish womens team finished in 7th place out of 17.

In the senior mens section, the Irish team finished 10th out of 14.

The full results can be seen HERE

Renaud Lavillenie from France breaks 20 year old pole vault world record

It's not every day you get to see someone break a world record that has stood for 20 year.

At an athletics meeting in Donetsk, Ukraine, the Frech pole vaulter and Olympic champion Renaud Lavillenie cleared a height of 6.16 metres. The previous record of 6.14 metres was held by Sergey Bubka back in 1993.


Lavillenie cleared the height on his first attempt.

Fionnuala Britton finishes 7th at Cross de l'Acier in France

European Cross Country champion Fionnuala Britton was in action today in the Cross de l'Acier race near Dunkerque in the NE of France. In an international field which included several Africans, she finished in 7th place. Another notable result was that of Sophie Duarte of France who will be another main contender for the European Cross Country title in December.

6650m...Cross de l'Acier 2013
Rang Dossard Nom Prénom Pays Cat Clst/Cat Temps Club
1 52 AYELEW HIWOT ETH 1 SEF 00:22:30 _
2 51 MASAI LINETH KEN 2 SEF 00:22:31 _
3 55 TESFAY HAFTAMNESH ETH 1 ESF 00:22:46 _
4 57 MACHARIA LUCY KEN 3 SEF 00:22:53 _
5 54 DUARTE SOPHIE FRA 4 SEF 00:22:54 _
6 58 KOSGEI CYNTHIA KEN 2 ESF 00:23:00 _
7 53 BRITTON FIONNUALLA IRL 5 SEF 00:23:03 _
8 61 TRABY LEILA FRA 6 SEF 00:23:27 _
9 60 CHEPCHIRCHIR SARAH KEN 7 SEF 00:23:32 _
10 63 PICOCHE LAURANE FRA 8 SEF 00:23:57

Once result of interest in the mens race was that of Michael Mulhare
11 33 MULHARE MICKAEL IRL 5 SEM 00:29:33

Fionnuala Britton wins 3000m track race in France...1st May 2013

On the 1st of May, Fionnuala Britton won a 3000m track race outdoors in a time of 9:03.12 at the 'Meeting de Balma' meet in Toulouse, France. This was only slightly slower than the 9:00.54 that Fionnuala ran when she won the bronze medal at the European Outdoor Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden last March.

Also in the race was Kerry Harty from Northern Ireland who finished in second place in 9:11.66. Kerry was on the Irish Euorpean X-Country team back in 2010 and has had a recent successful Indoor track season, which included wins over 1500m in Athlone and Birmingham, as well as posting 9:20.95 and 9:28 over 3,000m in Sheffield (Indoor) and Armagh (Road) recently.

Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc...

This one might be of interest to any of you that are interested in trail running or Ultra running.....The Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc. It has been called ‘the Tour de France of trail running’ or the ‘world championships’ for ultra-marathon mountain runners. Entries are limited to 2,500 and runners must have earned a certain number of points from other Ultra trail races before they can take part.

The North Face ‘UTMB’, as it is commonly known, has grown hugely in popularity since it started in 2003. The race usually takes place in late August every year and the mens winner is usually expected to finish in 20-21 hours with a 46 hour cut-off for the last runner. Starting in Chamonix in France, the race route takes in apline trails in Italy and Switzerland before finishing back in Chamonix. In 2011, out of the 2369 that started, only 1126 or 48% finished.

Starting at 1,000 metres above sea level, the course undulates between valleys and high mountain passes, the highest of which is 2,500 metres asl. The total ascent over the 167 km course is approx 9,500 metres. Just to put that into context, Carrountoohil.......the highest mountain in Ireland is only about 1040 metres.

Here is a nice video which gives a good feel for the race...



There is an article on the 2011 race HERE while the race website can be seen HERE