Kevin Seaward is the first Irish man home in the Olympic Marathon with a time of 2:21

Conditions were far from ideal for the Olympic men's marathon with the temperature up around 30 deg C and 85% humidity. There were 76 finishers with about 30 posting DNF's after dropping out.

The best of the Irish was Kevin Seaward who finished in 58th place in a time of 2h 21m 45s. Despite the the difficult conditions, he even picked up 30 places in the second half!

Paul Pollock was the second Irish man home in 71st place with a time of 2:27:48.

Unfortunately the third Irish competitor Stephen Scullion had to withdraw, leaving the race just after the 15km mark

Fionnuala McCormack finishes 25th in Olympic Marathon in 2:34

It was a mixed day for the Irish at the women's Olympic marathon in Japan on Saturday. 

Fionnuala McCormack finished in a very respectable 25th place with a time of 2h 34m 09s, just under 7 minutes behind the winner in the 27 deg C heat. This was the fourth Olympic appearance for the former European cross country champion.

It was a tough day at the office for Cork's own Aoife Cooke who had to pull out of the race.

Aoife was just 28 seconds down on the leaders at the 10k mark but had to retire just before the halfway point. 

This will obviously be a huge disappointment for Aoife who ran a 2:28 qualifying marathon back in April. 

In an Instagram post, Aoife wrote..."Incredibly disappointed with having to pull out of the race today. Can't put my finger om what went wrong but the conditions really got to me, my body shut down and I couldn't really do anything about it"

The only other Irish runner in the race was Sinead Diver from Co. Mayo. She was representing Australia and finished in an impressive 10th place with a time of 2:31:14.

Cork Runner Michelle Finn secures Olympic Qualification

From Leevale AC... Michelle Finn has secured her place at this year’s Tokyo Olympic Games in the 3000M Steeplechase when the crossed the line in second place at Paavo Nurmi Games

A stunning new personal best of 9:29.25, knocks almost ten seconds off her previous PB and is within the Olympic Qualification Standard time of 9:30.00. Michelle’s time in Finland moves her up to second on the all-time Irish list, just over a second behind Roísín McGettigan’s 14 year old all-time Irish record.

Full story... https://www.leevale.org/2021/michelle-finn-secures-auto-qualification-for-tokyo-olympics/

BBC Sporting Witness...Mike Powell's World Record Long Jump of 8.95 metres

Competition : IAAF World Championships in Tokyo in 1991. Bob Beamon's long jump record of 8.90 metres which was set at altitude in the thinner air at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico has stood for 23 years. In the final of the long jump at the 1991 World Championships, Mike Powell and Carl Lewis of the USA go head to head to decide who wins the World title. It would turn out to be a clash that required a new World record to determine the winner.

The BBC recently had an interview with Mike Powell about the 8.95 metre long jump world record which still stands to this day. You can listen to it HERE

Some video clips...

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'Running Police' used in Tokyo Marathon

Following on from the terrorist attack at the 2013 Boston Marathon, security has been a concern for all the world's major marathons.

Last weekend at the Tokyo marathon, the organisers had 60 police officers running along with the participants. They each wore white vests with 'POLICE' on them and ran about 10 kms each. Over 36,000 people took part in the event.

Will this become a standard feature at other major marathons?...London, Berlin, New York???

Tokyo to host 2020 Olympics

At a meeting of the International Olympic Committee this evening in Buenos Aires, Tokyo won the race to host the 2020 Olympic Games. Madrid had been eliminated in the first round of voting with Istanbul losing in the head to head with Tokyo.

Tokyo last hosted the Olympic Games in 1964.

Maeve Kyle...the first female Irish Olympian in athletics

Back in 1956, Maeve Kyle became the first Irish woman to take part in athletics in the Olympics when she competed in the 100m and 200m in Melbourne. At the time, it caused a bit of consternation in consevative Ireland with some people writing some 'stern' letters to the Irish Times! ;o)

She would later take part in the 1960 Rome Olympics and 1964 Tokyo Olympics (where she reached the semi-finals of both the 400m and 800m). She then went on to take bronze in the 400m at the 1966 European Indoor Athletics Championships in Dortmund. As well as being involved in athletics, Maeve also played hockey for Ireland and gained 58 caps.

The Newstalk Off the Ball sports programme interviewed Maeve recently and you can hear the 20 minute interview here...

On the Running Review website, James Sullivan also has another interview. You can read it HERE