Elizabeth Egan | Jul 24, 2026
The 154th edition of the world's longest-running national championships will take place at Morton Stadium in Santry over the weekend. It will be followed by the Commonweatlh Games athletics programme, which gets underway in Glasgow on Monday and run until Sunday 1 August.
The World U20 Championships, to which a strong Irish team will be travelling, will take place in Eugene, Oregon from 5th to 9th August, and the European Championships, the main event of the year for senior athletes, will start the following day in Birmingham, and conclude on Sunday 16 August.
A few days later, the first of the four remaining Diamond League fixtures takes place in Lausanne, with the Diamond League final set for Brussels on 4 and 5 September. The inaugural World Ultimate Championships will be held in Budapest from 11-13 September, with the World Road Running Championships to be held in Copenhagen the following weekend.
This is what they call the business end of the season.
The Irish National Senior Championships is the highlight of the domestic calendar, and has become a major event for spectators in recent years. Big crowds are expected across both days of action this year.
Among the stars expected to compete are Sharlene Mawdsley, Mark English, Cian McPhillips, Sarah Healy, Sophie O'Sullivan, Nicola Tuthill, Eric Favors, Andrew Coscoran, Brian Fay, Darragh McElhinney, Bori Akinola, Rhasidat Adeleke, Lauren Roy, Sean Aigboboh, Cathal Doyle, Nick Griggs, Sophie Becker, Jack Raftery and many, many more.
Some of the athletes selected for the upcoming World U20 Championships are also entered, and many athletes will be hopeful of winning their first national senior title. An action-packed weekend is guaranteed.
Spectator tickets are still available, and those who can’t make it to Dublin can enjoy the action on the Athletics Ireland YouTube channel, with two hours of finals also being broadcast live on RTÉ on Sunday evening from 6-8pm.
Action gets underway at 12 noon on Saturday, with Sunday's programme starting at 2pm.
Entries for the 2026 Fantasy National Seniors prediction competition will close at 10am on Saturday morning. You can enter here or via the link on our homepage. To take part, you just need to predict the medallists from any 10 events, choose a bonus athlete, complete the tiebreaker question and hit enter. We’ll update scoring on Saturday evening, and announce the winners on Monday morning. There are no prizes.
This weekend offers athletes a final chance to hit standards and improve rankings before the European Championship qualification window closes at midnight on Sunday. As things currently stand, Ireland look set to send a large team to Birmingham, with the opportunity for a small number to add their names for consideration when rankings are finalised next week.
You’ll find the current status of all Irish contenders on our European Championship page.
The post-championship blue will be short-lived this year, with the Commonwealth Games athletics action starting on Monday. Heptathletes Kate O'Connor and Anna McCauley will get their campaign underway at 9:10am on Tuesday morning.
Other Irish athletes representing Northern Ireland at the Games are Nick Griggs, James Gormley and Callum Morgan. You'll find a timetable of events, with details of when the Irish athletes are competing, on our championship page.
TNT Sports will broadcast the live action from the Games (also available on HBO Max, their streaming partner; subscription required) with extended highlights each day on Channel 5.
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