19-year old Ava Crean from Limerick breaks the Irish U23 10k road record in Valencia - Jan 2026

19-year old running sensation Ava Crean from Limerick burst onto the road race scene in 2025 and amazed everyone by winning the national title in the Dublin Marathon. See previous post.

Last weekend, she was back in action again when she broke the Irish U23 road record with a time of 32m 46s in Valencia Spain.

Ava's coach John Kinsella documented the run in this YouTube video...

Chaos at the start of the Valencia 10k

It looks as if the start of the Valencia 10k at the weekend had a 'bumpy' start...

🤯🤯 Scènes surréalistes au départ du @10KValencia ce matin ! pic.twitter.com/4D9i6JaKA6

— RUN’IX (@RUN_IX) January 15, 2023

Cork runners Lizzie Lee & Claire McCarthy lead Irish team home in World Half-Marathon Championships

The IAAF World Half Marathon Championships were held this year in Valencia, Spain on Saturday the 24th of March 2018. In the women's race, Cork runners Lizzie Lee and Claire McCarthy of Leevale AC both ran personal best times to lead the Irish team home...

46 Lizzie Lee IRL     1:13:19     PB
57 Claire McCarthy IRL     1:14:20     PB
78 Laura Graham IRL     1:16:27    
79 Laura Shaughnessy IRL     1:16:28     SB
82 Fionnuala Ross IRL     1:16:53     SB

These were the times for the five Irish men.

77 Paul Pollock IRL     1:04:29     SB
85 Kevin Seaward IRL     1:04:56     SB
92 Stephen Scullion IRL     1:05:19   
101 Sergiu Ciobanu IRL     1:06:19     SB
135 Kevin Dooney IRL     1:12:14

Breege Connolly runs European Championship qualifying time in Valencia Marathon

Irish Olympic Marathon runner Breege Connolly set a new personal best time of 2h 37m 26s in the Valencia Marathon on Sunday, a three second improvement on her previous best.

Breege finished 12th woman overall and the first masters athlete in Valencia, passing through the 10K mark in a time of 36.55. 

More importantly, she achieved the Qualifying Mark of sub 2:38 required for the the 2018 European Championships in Berlin.

With Ireland being able to field six athletes for the marathon, it's very likely that Breege has booked her ticket.