Kate Doherty

After a successful afternoon in Ostrava on Tuesday, Irish athletes and fans turn their attentions to the next Continental Tour Gold meeting on the calendar, the FBK Games in Hengelo, where seven Irish athletes are due to compete, on Sunday.

The distance athletes will travel to Track Night Vienna and the Portland Track Festival, while the preliminary round of the National League and the National 5 Mile Championships take place at home, and a sprinkling of other meetings take place across Europe.

Continental Tour Gold, FBK Hengelo

The start lists for the FBK Games on Sunday look particularly exciting from an Irish perspective, with Cian McPhillips racing his first 800m since finishing fourth over the distance at the World Championships in Tokyo and Sharlene Mawdsley looking to continue her recent good run of form.

Darragh McElhinney and Nick Griggs will race over 5000m, while Cathal Doyle will continue his comeback from injury over 1500m. Orla Comerford is entered for the Para 100m, while Benjamine Richardson, who will be eligible to represent Ireland in August 2027, will race the 100m.

McPhillips won over 600m at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston in late January before dental issues curtailed his season. The national 800m record holder already has the qualification standard for Birmingham, but will now look to add points for World Ultimate Championship qualification.

Mawdsley has run her three fastest times ever in her opening three 400m races of the season. Sub-50 is tantalisingly close, and achieving that may well be a valuable confidence booster ahead of Birmingham, where she’ll look to improve on her 8th-place finish last time out.

Both McElhinney and Griggs failed to finish their last 5000m – at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku on 3rd June – though Griggs has since won the Northern Irish 800m title and ran a 3:52.81 mile in Ostrava on Tuesday while McElhinney ran 3:40.64 to finish 5th in the 1500m in Marseille on 10th June.

Both already have the Auto Q for Birmingham, with Griggs also likely to be selected for the Commonwealth Games.

Doyle, like McPhillips, is making up for lost time. Top of his agenda will be securing qualification for Birmingham, having missed out on qualification last time out. He achieved the Athletics Ireland B standard when he ran 3:34.00 in Turku on 3rd June. The Auto Q is 3:33.50.

Comerford was an easy winner of the mixed-classification para 100m at the Diamond League in Oslo on 10th June. She ran a wind-assisted 11.78 (+2.8m/s) there and will be hopeful of a legal wind this time around.

Benjamin Richards, who will be eligible to represent Ireland in August 2027, will race the 100m, after running a 150m PB in Ostrava on Tuesday.

Edit: McElhinney has withdrawn from the 5000m.

Other Continental Tour meetings

Friday

Bori Akinola (100m) and Sarah Lavin (100m Hurdles) will get the weekend started at Anhalt Meeting in Dessau, Germany on Friday. While Lavin already has the qualification standard for Birmingham, and Akinola holds the B standard and a ranking well within quota, they’ll be looking to build form and confidence over the coming weeks.

Akinola opened his season with 10.20 (+1.0) and a PB of 10.19 (+2.0) in Stratford at the end of May, and got a taste of Continental Tour Gold action in Ostrava on Tuesday, where he finished 6th in 10.38 (+0.0).

Lavin opened her season in Taipei a fortnight ago with a moderate 13.36 (-1.9), and will be looking to get back to sub-13 form soon.

Saturday

Among those entered for Track Night Vienna, where the top races will be paced at Birmingham qualification times, are Cillian Kirwan (800m), Michael Murphy, Callum Morgan, Danielle Donegan (5000m) and Finley Daly (3000m Steeplechase).

Daly just missed the Athletics Ireland B standard of 8:35.00 when he finished second (8:35.65) at the British Milers Club Grand Prix in Birmingham last month. He is currently sitting just outside the quota spots.

Kirwan looked to have run a massive personal best at this meeting last year before it transpired that all but one of the 800m races used incorrect startlines for the runners in outer lanes, and the times were annulled. The national indoor champion will be hoping for better luck (and officiating) this time around.

The Athletics Ireland B standards of 13:20.00 and 15:22.00 are likely to be the target for those competing in the 5000m. Morgan came close when he ran 13:23.37 in Oordegem at the end of last season. Donegan’s best for the distance is the 16:06.12 she ran indoors in January, though she did run 15:54 on the roads a few weeks ago.

Kate Doherty is entered for both the 400m and 400m Hurdles at the ATX Classic in Georgetown, Texas. Doherty, events in which she has 53.90 and 59.20 personal bests, respectively, both set earlier this year.

Sunday

The startlists for the Portland Track Festival include Mark Milner (800m), James Dunne, Charlie O’Donovan, Maddie Mooney (1500m), Anika Thompson and Roisin Flanagan (5000m).

Dunne, who ran 3:38.05 in LA a week ago, and O’Donovan, who won the mile at the Penn Relays in April, will look to knock further time from their season’s bests, as will Mooney, who got very close to her two-year-old personal best when she ran 4:12.94 in Eugene last month.

The 15:22.00 Athletics Ireland B standard will likely be the target for Flanagan and Thompson, while Milner will be looking for a confidence-boosting run ahead of some races in Europe in the coming weeks.

Conor Cusack, who threw a PB of 75.83 at the European Throwing Cup in March, is competing at the Hylo Javelin Meeting in Offenburg, Germany, while Eric Favors will throw at the WGV Leichtathleticfestival in Stuttgart, Germany, his fourth competition in eight days.

Domestic action

The National League preliminary round will take place in Tullamore on Saturday. Forty-three club and country teams will battle for places in the national league finals on 9th August.

Attention on Sunday will turn to the roads, as the National 5 Mile Championships takes place in Dublin’s Phoenix Park.

Elsewhere

The rescheduled Doha Diamond League takes place on Friday. While many of the big names are missing and there are no Irish athletes, the presence of stars such as Neeraj Chopra (Javelin), Mutaz Essa Barshim (High Jump), Marileidy Paulino (400m), Cordel Tinch (110m Hurdles) and Soufiane El Bakkali (3000m Steeplechase) means that it’s still a must-watch meeting. Watch on Virgin Media Four or Virgin Media Player from 6-8pm.

Barry Keane, Oisín Ó Gailín and Orla O’Connor are on the elite startlist for the BAA 10km, a World Athletics Label race, in Boston on Sunday.

A small number of nations are holding their national championships over the weekend. You’ll find relevant links to watch and follow the British Championships on the TrackAthletes website.

A strong Irish contingent will take on the European 10,000m Cup in Italy this weekend, dozens will flock to Brussels for the two-day IFAM Continental Tour Bronze meeting, others will take part in continental tour meetings in the USA, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden and Germany.

There is a strong entry for the Leinster Senior, Masters and U20 Championships, as well as the British Milers Club Meeting in Belfast. Dundrum South Dublin will compete in both the men’s and the women’s competitions at the European Champion Clubs Cup in Spain.

And there is Irish interest on the final day of the NAIA Championships in the US, at the World Race Walking Tour Gold meeting in Spain and at least three meetings across the spring bank holiday weekend in England.

European 10,000m Cup

The 2025 edition of this annual continental event was a memorable one as Efrem Gidey cruised to the men’s title, and in doing so won Ireland’s first European 10,000m Cup medal.

Efrem won’t be back to defend his title, but a number of individuals within the squad will be chasing qualification for this summer’s European Championships in Birmingham, as well as having team aspirations.

The women’s team looks particularly strong, with Niamh Allen and Fiona Everard looking to convert the form they’ve shown on the roads and the cross country already this year, to the 25-lap track event. Emily Haggard-Kearney and Sorcha Nic Dhomhnaill add further firepower. Patricia Jackman and Faye Dervan complete the team.

Allen finished 21st at the World Cross Country in January, and has been setting course records on the roads of Cork, and beyond, in recent weeks. This will be her first 10,000m race on the track, but fine runs over 3000m and 5000m last summer suggest that her talents aren’t confined to the roads and the country.

Everard was the first woman home at the 10km de Saint Medard en Jalles in France at the end of March. Her winning time there was 31:58, faster than the Auto Q for Birmingham, but while times for road races can count, for women they must be set in women’s only races.

Haggard-Kearney, with an official best of 32:51 on the roads (she ran 32:01 at the Trafford 10km, an event not listed on the World Athletics Calendar, earlier this year), and Nic Dhomhnaill, who ran 32:24 at the Valencia 10km in January, also have the potential to set new marks on the track, and contend for a spot in Birmingham.

Callum Morgan, already an established underage international, will be racing his first 10,000m, after breaking the Northern Irish 10km record with 28:08 in Valencia. Morgan has already secured the Northern Ireland 5000m consideration standard for the Commonwealth Games, but his presence at this event suggests that he also has at least one eye on Birmingham too.

Oisín Ó Gailín made his Irish senior debut at this event last year, where he finished 7th in the B Final (29:02.05). Michael Murphy and Jamie Battle, both making their Irish senior debuts, complete the team

Any athlete who doesn’t hit the qualification standard (auto Q), could still make the Birmingham team by ranking. To do so, they would need to hit the Athletics Ireland B standard (28:30 for men; 32:55 for women) and have a ranking, based on their best two performances, at least one of which needs to be run on the track, during the qualification window.

European U23 champion Anika Thompson is currently the only Irish woman on the road to Birmingham list for 10,000m. She is ranked 43rd, with 27 spots available, but has secured the B standard. The battle for places on the men’s side is likely to be fierce. Gidey already has the Auto standard, as does Jack O’Leary. Four others have achieved the B standard.

IFAM: Brussels Bonanza

There are just over 100 Irish athletes on the entry list for the 2-day IFAM meeting in Brussels (Continental Tour Bronze). Among them are Sharlene Mawdsley, entered for both the 200m and 400m, Sophie Becker (400m), Irish U23 steeplechase record holder Ava O’Connor, Luke McCann continuing his injury return over 800m, and Arlene Crossan, who will look to bring her recent relay form to the 400m Hurdles.

IFAM is often a breakthrough meeting for many athletes, and among the emerging athlete names to look out for are Craig Duffy, who was in flying form at the IUAA Championships last month, Erin Friel (200m, 400m), Niall Murphy (5000m) and Abbie Sheridan (3000m steeplechase).

Other European meetings

If the number of Irish competitors in Brussels looks a little lower than last year, that may well be because a number of athletes are competing elsewhere over the weekend, including at other Continental Tour meetings.

Biggest of these is the Internationales Pfingstsportfest Rehlingen, a Continental Tour Silver meeting in Germany on Sunday. Jodie McCann, Eimear Maher and Laura Nicholson are all in the 1500m field, and they will be looking for a fast time and big ranking points towards European Championship qualification.

With PBs in the 4:07-4:08 range, all three are within touch of the Athletics Ireland B standard of 4:07.00 for Birmingham, the minimum required for selection. Nicholson is currently within quota on ranking, but lots will change over the coming weeks.

Alex O’Neill, another with Birmingham aspirations is on the 800m startlist and Mark Smyth has been added to the 100m field.

Andrew Egan (200m) and Conor Cusack (Javelin) are among the entries of the Pfingstmeeting (CT Challenger) in Switzerland on Saturday. Irish Half Marathon record holder Fearghal Curtin is entered for the Spåret 5000m (CT Challenger) in Sweden on Saturday. His best for the distance is 13:34.44 from 2023. Niamh Fogarty, Irish Discus record holder, will compete at the Sæby Wind Challenge (Cat F) in Denmark.

Oisin Lane and Aisling Lane are both on the 10km startlists for the Gran Premio Internacional de Marche Cantones de A Coruña in Spain on Saturday.

Ireland will be represented by DSD in both the men’s and women’s section of the European Champion Clubs Cup in Castellón, Spain. Among the star performers named in their team are Mollie O’Reilly (100m), Ciarán Carthy (400m), Amy O’Donoghue (800m), Paul O’Donnell (3000m), Megan Ryan (5000m), and Kate Doherty (400m Hurdles).

Closer to home

Nick Griggs (Mile) is the star name on the Belfast BMC startlist. It was at this event last year Griggs made his return from injury, running 3:55.97 in wet conditions. His best for the distance is 3:52.42 from Morton Games last July.

There are plenty of other names to look out for, including Ava O’Connor and Zoe Toland in the women’s mile, and Pia Langton and Emma Moore, who’ll be looking to continue their strong starts to 2026 in the women’s 800m.

Oisín Lynch, Callum Hurley and Robert Hewison are among a particularly strong men’s 800m lineup, while Louis O’Loughlin, Amy Greene and Roise Roberts are expected to race over 3000m.

There is lots of talent to watch out for at the Leinster Senior Championships in Carlow (SETU), particularly in the men’s sprints, men’s walk, and the field events.

Max O’Reilly, Adam Murphy, Mark Smyth and Marcus Lawler could face off over 200m, though Symth, as mentioned above, is now on the Rehlingen startlist. O’Reilly and sprint hurdler Adam Nolan are also entered in the shorter sprint.

Matthew Callinan Keenan (Pole Vault), Sam Healy (Long Jump), Saragh Buggy (Long Jump and Triple Jump), Sophie Meredith (Long Jump) and Eoin Sheridan (Discus Throw) are among those to watch out for in the field.

Matthew Glennon, Joe Mooney and David Kenny are all entered in the 5000m walk while Cliodhna Manning is down for the 100m and 200m.

Across the Atlantic

Irish 100m record-holder Israel Olatunde is on the startlist for both the 100m and 200m at the PURE Athletics Spring Invitational in Clermont, FL (Cat F), where Shane Howard is due to contest the Long Jump. Eric Favors will compete at the Throws U Series #3 event in Fleetwood.

Maddie Mooney (800m), James Dunne and Ronan McMahon-Staggs (both 1500m) and Roisin Flanagan (5000m) are on the startlist for the LA Track Festival, while Rory Devaney (Hammer) and Kate Joyce (Javelin) will compete at the Tucson Elite Throws (CT Silver) meeting on Saturday. Both meetings hold Continental Tour silver status.

There will also be Irish interest on the final day of the NAIA Championship on Friday. After cruising through Thursday’s heats, Nathan Cremin will race in the 800m final. Heather Murphy, who won the 10,000m title on Thursday is also entered for Friday’s 5000m final, though weather delays earlier in the week means she has had a day less than scheduled to recover.

Elsewhere, Charlie O’Donovan, fresh off his Penn Relays win, is the fastest entry for the mile at the Down the Stretch Track Fest (Cat F).

Looking ahead to midweek, 23 Irish athletes in individual events, plus two others named on relay squads, are declared for the preliminary rounds of the NCAA Division I Championships, which will start on Wednesday in Lexington, KY (East Regionals) and Fayetteville, AR (West Regionals). The top 12 athletes in each region will qualify for the National finals in Eugene in early June.

And in the UK

Mikey Kent (Long Jump) and Theo Hanlon (Shot Put), who both broke Leinster Schools championship records during the week, are entered for the BIGish Jumps and throws Fest in Bedford on Monday, along with Daena Kealy who made an impressive return to high jump action last Sunday and Cian Crampton (Discus), who missed the spring with a foot injury.

The popular Stratford Speed meetings in London have a reputation for producing fast times, and among the Irish athletes looking to impress at the first of this year’s series are Bori Akinola (100m, 200m), Paul Costelloe (100m, 200m), Michael Farrelly (100m), Ciara Neville (100m), Aisling Kelly (100m, 200m), Katie Bergin (100m), Sophie Becker (200m) and Hugo Magee (200m, 400m).

A small number of Irish athletes are also entered for the Comeback 5000m in London on Saturday.

Diamond in the rough

Finally, the second round of the 2026 Diamond League will take place in Xiamen, China, on Saturday. There are no Irish competitors, but plenty to interest athletics fans. The event will be shown live on Virgin Media Two from 12:00-14:00.

The Penn Relays and the London Marathon are two events that should be experienced at least once in a lifetime, if not as a participant, at least as a spectator. They are both among the events with Irish interest taking place this weekend.

Road action

The peak of the spring road race season is reached with the London Marathon, Dusseldorf Marathon and the Irish National Road Relays all taking place on Sunday.

Peter Lynch is among the elite entries for London. Lynch became the first Irish man to break 1 hour for the half marathon earlier this year, albeit on a non-record eligible course, and he may well be targeting the national marathon record on Sunday.

Lynch broke the national marathon record in Düsseldorf this time last year, when he ran 2:09:36, and held it until Fearghal Curtin obliterated it with 2:07:54 on 18th October.

Ireland could send up to six athletes to the European Championships in this event in August, and seven athletes have already achieved the minimum requirements for selection. Lynch, Curtin and Paul O’Donnell all hold the automatic qualification standard, and would be expected to be selected, if available.

Ryan Creech, who just missed the automatic standard in Seville earlier this year, National Marathon champion David McGlynn, next-by-ranking Barry Keane, and former national record holder Hiko Tonosa have all bettered the Athletics Ireland B standard of 2:12.00.

The National Road Relay Championships will take place in Raheny on Sunday. Some of the athletes to watch out for include Louis O'Loughlin, John Travers, Lucy Holmes, Zoe Toland, Amy O'Donoghue, Emma McEvoy, Saoirse Fitzgerald, Ellie Hartnett and Róise Roberts. See the Athletics Ireland preview for details of the clubs expecting to make the podium.

Penn Relays

Penn Relays is one of the craziest meetings in the sport. Not only do they manage to run 60 4x100m relays in an hour (yes, that’s one per minute), but the three inside lanes are shorter than 400m, so some athletes break out, rather than in, at the relevant point in a given race.

The stands are packed as high school and college athletes compete for the distinctive Penn Relay 'Wheels' awarded to the champion teams.

Irish athletes have featured heavily on the Championship of America podiums in recent years and Seán Donoghue will be looking to win a third consecutive Wheel with his Villanova teammates. He is entered on both 4x800m and Distance Medley Relay (DMR) teams.

Maeve O’Neill, who was a member of the Providence DMR team that finished second last year, will race both the DMR and the 4x800m relay alongside Gemma Galvin and Cara Laverty. Galvin and Laverty are also both entered for the individual 1500m, as are Nicole Dinan and Jack Fenlon.

Emmy Thornton (Dartmouth), Claire Crowley (Boston College) and Killian Fahy (North Carolina) are also listed on the DMR startlists, while David Davitt (Penn) is listed for the 4x400m. Sean Aigboboh is named in both the individual 100m and the Houston 4x200m relay team.

The Carnival gets underway with distance night on Thursday, where Scott Fagan, Grace Weigele and Jane Buckley will all be racing over 5000m. Olympic Development events, which carry World Athletics Continental Tour Silver (Cat B) status, are also on the programme. Carlie O’Donovan (Mile) and Hannah Seagrave (800m) are among the entrants in those events.

Other US meetings

Just over 1700km from the Penn Relays, a meeting of similar magnitude will be staged for the 116th time in Des Moines, Iowa. The Drake Relays startlist has fewer Irish entrants than its East Coast equivalent, though Ava O’Connor is among those due to race the Continental Tour Silver 3000m steeplechase race.

Lauren Roy (100m, 200m, 4x100m Relay) and Kate Doherty (400m Hurdles) are among the entries for the Michael Johnson Invitational; Shane Howard (Long Jump) is on the Tiger Track Classic, and Victoria Amiadamen (400m Hurdles) is due to race at the J. Fred Duckett/Rice Twilight.

Some of the NCAA Div II and NAIA colleges contest conference championships this weekend. Nathan Cremin, who ran a 1:46.45 800m last weekend is entered for the 800m, 1500m and 4x400m relay at the Appalachian Athletics Conference Championships, while his Montreat teammate Heather Murphy is on the 5000m, 10,000m and 4x800m startlists.

Elsewhere

With Kate O’Connor and Anna McCauley in flying form already this season, emerging multi-event star Enya Silkena will get her first taste of World Combined Events Tour as she takes part in the Heptathlon at Multistars in Brescia, Italy.

Seán Mockler (Hammer Throw), Michael Healy (Discus, WfD), Theo Hanlon (U20 Shot Put) and Thomas Williams (U20 Hammer) are among the athletes entered for the Templemore Throws Festival on Saturday.

Keep an eye out on our calendar page for late additions and livestream links for these and other meetings, including the Continental Tour Gold meeting in Nairobi on Friday.