Timetable for Irish athletes at the World Indoor Championships in Poland...Fri 7th-Sun 9th Mar 2014

The World Indoor Athletic Championships take place next weekend in Sopot, Poland. The competition starts on Friday the 7th and concludes on Sunday the 9th of March.

A total of 5 Irish athletes will be taking part and all of them are in action on Friday. While it is highly unlikely that there will be any medals won by the Irish athletes,  just getting to the final of a world championship event would be seen as an accomplishment in itself.


This is the list of Irish athletes taking part broken down by their...
Athlete number...Name...Discipline...Date of Birth...Personal best....Seasons best

696...Ciara EVERARD...800m...10 Jul 90...2:02.54...2:04.02
698...Roseanne GALLIGAN...800m...09 Dec 87...2:00.58... o 2:03.69
Friday 13:00 Polish time    12:00 Irish time W 800m   Heats

699...Claire TARPLEE...1500m...22 Sep 88...4:11.35...o 4:14.61
Friday 19:35 Polish Time  18:35 Irish time  W 1500m  Heats

235...Mark ENGLISH...800m...18 Mar 93...1:44.84...o 1:46.82
Friday 13:30 Polish Time  12:30 Irish Time  M 800m  Heats

David McCarthy of West Waterford AC has qualified for two events but will only take part in the 1500m.
236...David MCCARTHY...1500m...03 Aug 88...3:39.14...3:39.14
Friday 12:25 Polish Time 11:25 M 1500m...Heats
236...David McCarthy...3000m...03 Aug 88...7:51.24...7:54.39
Friday 20:25 Polish Time 19:25 M 3000m Heats

The World Indoor Championships will be covered on BBC and EuroSport.

Athletics Ireland announce Irish team for World Indoor Championships in Poland in March

Athletics Ireland has just announced the Irish team that will travel to Sopot in Poland for the IAAF World Indoor Track and Field Championships from the 7th to the 9th of March 2014.

They are...
Amy Foster* 60m (City of Lisburn AC)
Mark English 800m (UCD A.C) 
Rose-Anne Galligan 800m (Newbridge A.C) 
Ciara Everard 800m (UCD A.C)
David McCarthy 1500m (West Waterford A.C) 
Claire Tarplee 1500m (DSD A.C)

* Amy Foster has decided not to compete at the World Indoor Championships in order to focus on the Commonwealth Games.

Photos of the World Cross Country Championships...Sun 24th Mar 2013

As most of you will know, the World Cross Country Championships were held last Sunday in Bydgoszcz, Poland. In the womens competition, Fionnuala Britton was the top European finisher while the Irish team were the top European team.

Joe Murphy of Eagle AC made the long trip to Poland and took some great photos. You can see the slideshow HERE

Irish team finish 5th in the World X-Country Championships in Poland

The Irish Womens team finished an impressive 5th in the World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland (Sun 24th March 2013).

Not only was Fionnuala Britton the leading European runner in 14th place but the Irish team was also the leading European team.

In a competition that was always going to be dominated by African runners, the Kenyan and Ethiopian teams took first and second place respectively. The team 'from' Bahrain took third but to be honest, it's a bit of a joke in that it was completely made up of Kenyan and Ethiopian runners. The USA were fourth but should have by rights, finished third.

POS     TEAM     COUNTRY     MARK
1     Kenya     Kenya     19 (1,5,6,7)
2     Ethiopia     Ethiopia     48 (2,3,15,28)
3     Bahrain     Bahrain     73 (4,8,20,41)
4     United States     United States     90 (13,21,26,30)
5     Ireland     Ireland     115 (14,27,32,42)
6     France     France     122 (16,33,35,38)
7     Great Britain  Great Britain      154 (31,37,40,46)
8     Canada     Canada     167 (24,25,58,60)
9     Spain     Spain     183
10     Uganda     Uganda     188
11     Poland     Poland     256
12     Japan     Japan     278
13     Brazil     Brazil     298
14     South Africa     South Africa     305
15     Australia     Australia     344



There were some great Irish performances in there but the two that stood out for me were Linda Byrne who finished within two seconds of the top British finisher Gemma Steel and Ava Hutchinson who was just 10 seconds behind Linda.

POS    BIB    ATHLETE    COUNTRY    MARK    DETAIL (Some of the 96 finishers with the Irish, British, French and US finishers shown) (Top 4 to score)
     1     Emily CHEBET    KEN     24:24   
     2     Hiwot AYALEW    ETH     24:27   
     3     Belaynesh OLJIRA    ETH     24:33   
     13     Neely SPENCE    USA     25:08   
     14     Fionnuala BRITTON    IRL     25:08   
     16     Sophie DUARTE    FRA     25:17   
     21     Emily INFELD    USA     25:27   
     26     Mattie SUVER    USA     25:41   
     27     Mary CULLEN    IRL     25:42   
     30     Kim CONLEY    USA     25:45   
     31     Gemma STEEL    GBR     25:47   
     32     Linda BYRNE    IRL     25:49   
     33     Laurane PICOCHE    FRA     25:50   
     34     Deena KASTOR    USA     25:52   
     35     Christelle DAUNAY    FRA     25:53   
     37     Louise DAMEN    GBR     25:55   
     38     Christine BARDELLE    FRA     25:56   
     40     Stephanie TWELL    GBR     25:58   
     42     Ava HUTCHINSON    IRL     25:59   
     45     Clémence CALVIN    FRA     26:03   
     46     Eleanor BAKER    GBR     26:04   
     47     Delilah DI CRESCENZO    USA     26:05   
     48     Lauren HOWARTH    GBR     26:05   
     65     Emily WICKS    GBR     26:48   
     70     Elizabeth LEE    IRL     26:55   
     96     Namakando NAMAKANDO    ZAM     31:27

In the post race analysis on RTE, it was said that Fionnuala Britton should have concentrated on Cross Country races only in the build up to this race and to have ignored doing the European Indoor championships. It might be true if this was the main race of the year but was it? Everyone expected the African runners to dominate all of the medals at this event regardless of who else turned up. Should she have spent the last few months concentrating on just Cross Country and getting a top 10 finish or should she have run indoors as she did and won a bronze medal in the 3000m indoors at the European Championships in Sweden? I think most people would pick the second option.

Athletics Ireland announce selection policy for World Cross Country Championships...

Ever since the Irish womens team won the European Cross Country Championships last December, there has been some debate as to whether there would be a team sent to the World Cross Country Championships in Poland in March. After some delay, Athletics Ireland have finally announced their selection policy...http://hp.athleticsireland.ie/images/spolicy/2013/WXC/13_WXCPolicy_500213.pdf

Athletics Ireland said in a statement...."The Selectors will consider a team(s) for the IAAF World Cross Country Championship who have the potential to achieve a top 8 team finish. For each team considered (by age category)--the first four finishers from the 2012 European Championships will be considered pre-selected."

Essentially, that means that Fionnuala Britton, Linda Byrne, Ava Hutchinson and Lizzie Lee are on the team with space for two more. Mary Cullen from North Sligo who recently won the Axa Raheny 5 mile road race in a new course record time of  25:55 is also likely to get the nod. A total of eight athletes can be selected but only six may take part in the race.

The World Cross Country Championships will take place in Bydgoszcz, Poland on Sunday, the 24th of March.

Ruthann Sheahan of Athenry AC sets new Irish 24 hour record in Poland...

At the 24 Hour World and European Championships in Katowice, Poland over the weekend, Ruthann Sheahan of Athenry AC set an new Irish womens 24 hour outdoor record. She covered an incredible 229.3 kms or 142,5 miles in the 24 hours, smashing the old record of 206.650 kms which was set back in 1996.

Not only did Ruthann's finish as 5th woman in Europe and 7th in the World but she was within 300 metres of the top Irish man John O'Regan who ran 229.6 kms.

Just in case you are wondering just what kind of speed that is, 229.3 kms in 24 hours works as 9.55 kms per hour which is 10 min/mile pace for a whole day!

Ruthann is originally from Leap in West Cork and now lives in Galway. She is also a former winner of the Dingle 50 mile Ultra-Marathon.

Ruthann's teammate Valerie Glavin is the current holder of the Irish womens 24 hour indoor record of 217.8 kms set back in 2011 in Finland. Athenry AC can now boast of having two Ultra distance record holders in their ranks!

European Championship Womens...
5th place Ruthanne Sheahan 229.3 km.....5th in Europe, 7th in World
Deirdre Finn 103km 73rd place

European Mens:
25th place John O Regan...229.6 km 31st in World
33rd place Eddie Gallen.....226 km 42nd in World