Irish & Cork runners at the IAAF World Half-Marathon Championships in Cardiff...Sat 26th Mar 2016

The IAAF World Half-Marathon Championships were held this year in Cardiff, Wales on Saturday the 26th of March 2016. While the elites were at the front end of the field, it was also a mass participation event with just over 12,000 taking part.

In the elite women's section, the only Irish woman taking part was Lizzie Lee from Cork. In wet and windy conditions, Lizzie posted a time of 75:36.

Women...
52nd Lizzie Lee (Leevale) 75:36



In the elite men's section, there was a full Irish team which finished 8th out of 14 teams.
Men
14th Paul Pollock (Annadale Striders) 62:46
41st Thomas Frazer (Crusaders) 65:20
42nd Kevin Seaward (St Malachy's) 65:23
50th Sergiu Ciobanu (Clonliffe Harriers) 66:30

Many of those taking part will also have their eyes firmly set on qualifying for the Olympics in Rio. Ireland can only send a team of 3 but more than that have already gone inside the qualifying time of 2h 19m.

Kevin Seaward    IRL2:14:52    Berlin (GER)    27.09.2015
Mick Clohisey    IRL2:15:11    Sevilla (ESP)    21.02.2016
Sergiu Ciobanu    IRL2:15:14    Berlin (GER)    27.09.2015
Paul Pollock    IRL2:15:38    Berlin (GER)    27.09.2015
Gary Thornton    IRL2:17:19    Berlin (GER)    27.09.2015
Thomas Frazer    IRL2:17:45    Rotterdam (NED)    12.04.2015
Sean Hehir    IRL2:17:48    Berlin (GER)    27.09.2015

Looking at the times above, do the selectors send the three with the fastest marathon times? In that case, Paul Pollock would miss out but based on his performance in Cardiff, he is in great shape and faster than the other Irish runners by some margin. Whatever they decide, someone is going to be disappointed.

A number of runners from clubs in Cork also ran. The fastest of these was Tim O'Donoghue of East Cork AC who was just a bit slower than some of the elite Irish runners. Tim is in flying form at the moment having finished 2nd in the Dungarvan 10 mile in January and 4th in the Ballycotton 10 mile at the start of March.

Tim O'Donoghue

These are some Cork club runners that broke 90 minutes in Cardiff....

Pos    Name        Cat    Cat Pos    Club        GunTime    Chip ChipTime
7    Tim O' Donoghue    MS    7    East Cork AC    01:06:58    01:06:56
90    Conor McCauley    MS    83    Leevale AC    01:14:54    01:14:47
140   Alan O'Brien     MS     81     Eagle AC      01:14:44 01:14:42
144    Tony Kelleher    M45    5    Togher AC    01:17:07    01:17:00
207    Eric Browne    MS    176    Togher AC    01:19:10    01:19:02
246    John O'Callaghan    M45    6    Eagle AC   01:20:14    01:20:05
301    Ronan Boland    M50    5    Eagle AC        01:21:34    01:21:25
302    David Butler    MS    238    St Finbarr's AC    01:21:35    01:21:28
364    David O'Keeffe    MS    279    Togher AC    01:22:51    01:22:39
702    Killian O'Connor     MS   412   Eagle AC    01:26:48     01:26:38

The results for the elite runners can be found HERE

The results for the non-elite runners can be seen HERE

Photos...(Updated Sun 27th @21:38)
1) Gearóid Ó Laoi has some nice photos HERE

Fall at the start of the elite men's race

Some of the non-elites

Sarah McCormack wins Snowdon Mountain race, Tim O'Donoghue finishes 3rd

The annual Snowdon Mountain race was held last Saturday the 19th of July 2014. This was the 39th running of this prestigious race up and down the highest mountain in Wales.

The womens race was won by Sarah McCormack of Clonliffe Harriers in a time of 55m 21s.

Only one week earlier, Sarah had finished 17th at the European Mountain Running Championships in France. She was also part of the Irish team that won gold at the European Cross Country Championships back in 2012.

In the mens race, Tim O'Donoghue of East Cork AC finished in 3rd place. Tim is a regular on the local road race circuit here in Cork and often features in the top 3 of many races.

At the half way point at the summit of Snowdon, Tim was in 6th place having set off at a more conservative pace...

This obviously paid off in the second half as he moved up the field to finish in 3rd place.

Photo Credit : Paul Tierney