Kate O'Connor

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.

An eleven-strong Irish team will travel to the twenty-second edition of the World Indoor Championships in Toruń, Poland, this weekend, with serious medal aspirations.

Kate O’Connor, who won silver in the Pentathlon last time out, will look to at least emulate that performance, but others, too, have outside medal chances.

Below are mini-profiles of each of the Irish athletes participating, with details on their current form, Road to Toruń journey, and what they may need to do to qualify for this summer's major championships.

All sessions of the World Indoor Championships will be shown live on Virgin Media. The broadcast schedule, links to startlists and live results, and an Irish-specific timetable can be found on TrackAthletes.ie.

A few Irish athletes will open their outdoor season at collegiate events in the US this weekend. Meetings with Irish interest will be added to the TrackAthletes calendar page as startlists become available.

Lauren Roy

Lauren Roy (women's 60m) comes into the World Indoors in the form of her life, having run 7.19 for 60m (=2nd Irish all-time), the distance she will race this weekend, and 22.89 (2nd Irish all-time) over 200m already this year.

Roy surpassed the Athletics Ireland B standard for Toruń when she ran 7.25 on 17 January, a time that would ultimately have been good enough to make the cutoff, but she ensured her selection when she bettered the 7.20 automatic standard in Spokane on 27 February.

Roy was a member of the Irish 4x100m team that broke the national 4x100m relay record at the Diamond League meeting in London last July. She was also part of the relay team at the 2022 World Championship in Eugene, and was on the squad that won 4x100m relay silver at the 2018 World U20 Championship.

Roy competed at the European Indoor Championship in Glasgow in 2019 (also over 60m), has twice represented Ireland at the European Team Championships, and went close to making the 200m final at last summer’s FISU World University Games.

She has already surpassed the 200m Athletics Ireland B standard for this summer’s European Championships and is close to the automatic qualification standard of 22.85. She will also look to make the Northern Ireland team for the Commonwealth Games this summer.

Ciara Neville

Ciara Neville (women's 60m) bridges a five-year gap when she returns to Toruń, the site of her last major championships – the European Indoors – in 2021. She went close to making the Olympics later that year and, in the process, suffered a serious hamstring injury that later required surgery.

It’s taken Neville a long time to return to the form of 2021, and to build on the promise shown when she made the World Indoor Championships in 2017 as a 17-year old, and as a member of the silver-medal-winning 4x100m team at the 2018 World U20 Championships.

But the reigning National 60m and 100m champion will go into Saturday morning’s 60m heats off the back of an incredibly consistent indoor season. She improved her nine-year-old 7.30 personal best to 7.28, then 7.27, then 7.26 this year, and equalled or surpassed the 7.30 Athletics Ireland B standard on five occasions. Indeed, the 7.35 she ran in the heats of the National Indoors is the slowest she’s gone all season.

Neville’s indoor runs – two of which can count for 100m ranking purposes – together with her National senior win last August, give her a good start on the Road to Birmingham. She will next need to run the Athletics Ireland B standard of 11.35 or quicker and be ranked within the top 36 in Europe to make that team. A run of 11.18, the Automatic standard, or faster would all but guarantee selection.

Bori Akinola

Bori Akinola (men's 60m) is the reigning National 100m and National Indoor 60m Champion, as well as the national 60m record holder.

Akinola was undefeated in his six races in January, including World Indoor Tour wins in Lyon and Glasgow. In February, he added the national record (6.54) and a second-place finish at the World Indoor Tour gold meeting in Belgrade, before retaining his national title and finishing third at the World Indoor Tour silver meeting in Berlin earlier this month.

He was a member of the Irish 4x100m relay team that broke a 25-year-old national record last summer, but a niggle in warm-up meant that he missed out when the team further upgraded the mark a week later.

Having competed with the relay team at the European Championships in Rome in 2024, Akinola made his individual debut in the 60m at the European Indoors in Apeldoorn last year, where he finished 11th overall.

The UCD AC athlete already has the Athletics Ireland B standard for the European Championships over 100m, and his performances in Belgrade and Berlin give him a healthy foundation on which to build his ranking points. He currently sits 16th on the Road to Birmingham, and a final position within the top 36 would likely see him selected. The relay team, currently ranked ninth, also looks likely to qualify.

Mark English

Mark English (men's 800m) started the year with a new national 600m record, and followed it shortly after with two new marks over 800m. He hasn’t, however, raced since finishing third and breaking the national record in the World Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Ostrava on 3 February, having sat out the National Indoors with a niggle.

English has a stunning record at European level, adding indoor bronze in 2025 to the medals he won in 2019 (bronze) and 2015 (silver), and the bronze medals he won outdoors in 2022 and 2014. He has yet to make a global final indoors or out.

English bagged the Auto Q for Toruń in his first 800m of the season in Luxembourg on 18 January, and has had the qualification standard for the European Championships since 12 August last year. Not having to chase times or ranking points affords English the chance to arrive at the main events ready to contend.

English is ranked fifth in the field based on personal bests, and in the absence of World Record holder Josh Hoey, will be looking to finally make his mark on the world stage.

Maeve O’Neill

Maeve O’Neill (women's 800m) has been in scintillating form all winter, running 1:28.09 for 600m in early December, and 2:41.07 for 1,000m in early January before running 2:01.96 for 800m, an outright PB, in late January. She further improved her 800m PB - and the national indoor record -with 2:00.33 on 22 February.

Toruń will be the senior international debut for the Cork athlete, who this past weekend just missed out on the final of the NCAA Division I Indoor Championships. O’Neill won bronze at the Irish National Senior Championships last summer, but her 2026 performances to date have elevated her to the top echelon of Irish 800m running.

O’Neill has the Athletics Ireland B standard secured for this summer’s European Championships and will spend the coming months collecting ranking points and/or chasing the 1:59.80 Automatic qualification standard alongside her college racing commitments in the US. Sub-2 will, no doubt, also be on her mind.

Emma Moore

Emma Moore (women's 800m) will be making her senior international debut in Toruń after starting the season with a bang. She solo ran a 2:02.39 in Abbotstown on 17 December and looked at home when racing her first World Indoor tour meeting in Luxembourg a month later.

Moore secured the Athletics Ireland B standard for Toruń and further lowered her personal best and broke the National U23 record (since lowered by O’Neill) when she ran 2:01.21 at the NIA on 28 January, and got a taste of World Indoor Tour Gold racing in Ostrava a week later.

The Galway native will need to run 2:00.95 (the Athletics Ireland B standard) or faster to qualify for this summer’s European Championships in Birmingham, something that looks well within her capabilities based on early-season form, as well as gain enough ranking points to be within the quota spots. Her runs from Ostrava and Luxembourg will have helped greatly on that front.

Achieving the 1:59.80 automatic qualifier would, of course, negate the need for ranking points, though given the depth of middle-distance talent in Ireland, there may well be more than three athletes in contention for the spots come August. An exciting summer lies ahead.

James Gormley

James Gormley (men's 1500m) transferred allegiance to Ireland in 2024, having previously represented Great Britain at junior level, and made the Irish team over 3000m for both European Indoors and World Indoors in 2025.

This time round, he races the 1500m, having secured the Athletics Ireland B standard for that event, en route to the Northern Ireland Commonwealth Games consideration standard for the mile, in Boston in February. The time he ran that day - 3:53.38 – places him inside the top 10 on the Irish all-time list indoors.

With the Commonwealth Games mark secured for both 1500m and 5000m, Gormley may turn his attention to making the team for the European Championships, where places in both distances will be hotly contested.

The respective Athletics Ireland B standards for Birmingham are 3:35.25  and 13:20.00, but faster may well be needed to make the team. Gormley’s bests are 3:36.25 from 2024 and 13:26.24 indoors earlier this year, but if his indoor form is anything to go by, then improving them should be a formality.

Andrew Coscoran

By 8 February, Andrew Coscoran (men's 3000m) had already run a 3000m, a mile and a 1500m split that were second only, in terms of Irish all-time performances indoors, to his own national records. He later upgraded the Irish 1500m record, with 3:33.09 and third place in Liévin.

Coscoran achieved the automatic standard for the 1500m and the 3000m in Toruń, and contested both distances at last year’s World Indoors. However, after getting the nod from the selectors, he has opted to contest just the longer distance this time.

He is ranked third in the World this year, and second in the entered field based on season’s bests, though canny racers Josh Kerr, Cole Hocker and Geordie Beamish are also in the field. Concoran will be looking to improve on his sixth place from last year, but such is the quality of the field that he could run the race of his life and leave with nothing.

Despite making the World 1500m final in September, Coscoran had to wait until 19 February to secure his first Auto Q for this summer’s European Championships. He competed in both the 1500m and the 5000m in Tokyo, and may again seek qualification over the longer distance.

His 3000m performance from January and his national 5000m win last August give him a head start on the Road to Birmingham, but the Athletics Ireland B standard of 13:20 will also need to be achieved if he has any chance of earning one of the three hotly-contested spots available.

Nick Griggs

This winter, Nick Griggs (men's 3000m) achieved two things that had, to that point, remained elusive, as he took his first European individual cross country title in December and won his first national senior title earlier this month. The world now, it seems, is his oyster.

He will, however, face formidable opposition if he is to go anywhere near adding his first senior international medal in Toruń, as he lines up for what must be one of the deepest 3000m fields in World Indoor history.

Griggs achieved the automatic standard for Toruń when finishing fourth behind Coscoran in Boston in January, and he secured his spot when winning the national title on 1 March. The time he ran in Boston - 7:32.79 - was a new national U23 record and moved him to second on the Irish all-time list.

Griggs has competed for Ireland at two senior championships before now – both outdoors and both over 1500m. He’ll be looking to make his first Indoor major a memorable one.

He has the Northern Ireland Commonwealth Games consideration standard for both the mile and the 5000m, and the automatic standard for the European Championships over the longer distance.

Sarah Lavin

Sarah Lavin (60m hurdles) travels to Toruń off the back of an eighth National Indoor title. She achieved the automatic standard in her first outing of the year with the 7.98 she ran when finishing second in Paris on 25th January. This is still her fastest race of the season, but if anyone knows how to show up in form for a championship, it’s Lavin.

She is a permanent fixture in the Irish team these days, and has competed at every major championship, indoors and out, since 2021 (two Olympics, three World Championships, two European Championships, three European Indoor Championships and, after this weekend, four World Indoor Championships).

She finished fourth at the European Indoors last March and was fifth at the World Indoors in 2024. She’d desperately love to turn her consistency into silverware. The national indoor record, too, must surely one day be hers.

Lavin secured the European Championship standard at the World Championships last summer. Her performances with the record-breaking 4x100m relay team have put them in with a good chance of also qualifying for Birmingham.

Kate O’Connor

Kate O'Connor barely needs an introduction these days. Having won medals at the European Indoors, World Indoors, World University Games and World Championships in 2025, as well as adding big chunks to her national Pentathlon and national Heptathlon records, she carries medal expectations into Sunday’s event.

The Louth athlete started her year with personal bests in the two events she’s competed in thus far. She won the National Indoor long jump title with a first-round jump of 6.50m, a performance which places her third on the Irish all-time list, and gave Sarah Lavin a closer run than she’s used to in the national 60m hurdles title race.

O’Connor has already secured the Northern Ireland consideration standard for the Commonwealth Games and the Automatic Standard for the European Championships. The heptathlon at the later starts just 16 days after the heptathlon finishes, but with both events taking place in the UK, it may be an easier back-to-back challenge than on other occasions.

Before then, however, there’s a World Indoor title on the line. Anna Hall, the World Heptathlon champion, will start as favourite, but O’Connor, obviously in the form of her life, looks set to challenge. Just how much can she add to her Irish record – which currently stands at 4781 – in the process?

The Irish National Senior Indoor Championships takes centre stage this weekend, but Irish athletes will also be in action at Conference Championships in the US, on the roads in Japan and outdoors in Hobart.

With just over a week left in the qualification period for the World Indoors, Irish athletes hoping to compete there will have half an eye on the ranking lists for Toruń, and some may even be targeting B standards over the weekend.

National Indoor Championships

The 38th edition of the Irish Senior Indoor Championships will take place at the National Indoor Arena (NIA) in Abbotstown on Saturday and Sunday.

Among the athletes expected to headline the event is defending 60m champion and newly minted national record holder Bori Akinola, who has already secured the Auto Q for the World Indoor Championships.

The men’s middle-distance races are again packed with intrigue, and the 1500m and 3000m promise to be close battles, irrespective of which event the main contenders decide to do.

Both national 1500m, mile and 3000m national record holder Andrew Coscoran, and European U23 Cross Country Champion Nick Griggs are entered for the 1500m and 3000m. Coscoran has the standard for World Indoors in both events, while Griggs – who is still looking for his first national senior title – has the standard over the longer distance.

Darragh McElhinney has the B standard for the 3000m, and he’s entered to race over that distance on Sunday, as is the ever-improving Callum Morgan. Luke McCann and James Dunne will continue their return from injury over the metric mile.

Mark English, who has broken the national indoor 600m and 800m records in 2026 will look to add another national 800m title to his tally, while Emma Moore will be the likely favourite in the women’s 800m.

Ciara Neville is one of three Irish athletes with the Athletics Ireland B standard in for Toruń in the women's 60m, but with the other two in college in the US, she’ll start as red-hot favourite on Sunday, as will Sarah Lavin, who has the World Indoor standard, in the sprint hurdles on Saturday.

Sharlene Mawdsley looked very impressive when she opened her season over 400m last week, and she’ll look to win a third consecutive title over the distance on Sunday.

Ireland’s top female multi-eventers – Kate O’Connor and Anna McCauley – are both entered for a few events over the weekend. O’Connor, who has already secured her spot in Torun will compete over 60m hurdles and long jump, while McCauley is entered for the hurdles, long jump and shot put.

Eric Favors (shot put), Aoife O’Sullivan (high jump) and Lauren O’Callaghan (long jump) will look to add to their growing resumes in the field events, while the men’s long jump could be head-to-head between Leevale pair Reece Ademola (who is yet to open his season) and Sam Healy.

The women’s triple jump will have its first winner not named Saragh Buggy since 2015.

See the Athletics Ireland website and other media sources for in-depth previews.

The event will be broadcast on Virgin Media 2 on Sunday from 2:30-4:30pm, with Athletics Ireland YouTube streams across both days.

Take part in Fantasy National Indoors here

NCAA Conference Championships

Three of the Irish records set in 2026 (Maeve O’Neill, 800m; Diarmuid O’Connor, Heptathlon; Elizabeth Ndudi, Long Jump) and other breakthroughs (Lauren Roy, 60m and 200m) have come from athletes based in the NCAA system.

Most, if not all, of these athletes are competing for their universities in the NCAA Conference Championships this week.

Athletes qualify for NCAA nationals by being in the top 16 performances across the nation during the season. Roy, O’Neill and Ndudi all look likely to qualify, while Abdel Laadjel is currently sitting just outside the qualification spots in the men’s 5000m.

Elsewhere

Laura Nicholson has spent the winter training in Australia, and has already picked up a win in New Zealand and potentially valuable World Ranking points in Perth, Australia. She will line up in the 3000m at the Hobart Track Classic on Saturday.

Irish record holder Fearghal Curtin is among the elite entries for the Tokyo Marathon on Sunday. Curtin broke the national record last October when winning the Gyeongju International Marathon in South Korea in 2:07:54.

It is easy to be blinded by the numbers as the indoor season blasted out of the blocks, so to speak, records tumbled and qualifications standards were set left, right and centre.

But January 2026 must surely be remembered foremost for the breakthrough performances by Irish athletes at the World Cross Country Championships, with all three senior athletes finishing in the top 25 in Tallahassee.

World Cross Country Championships

Brian Fay in 16th, Niamh Allen in 21st, Fiona Everard 23rd; it’s been a long time since three Irish athletes finished in the top 25 in senior races at the World Cross Country Championships. Twenty-four years, in fact, and, on that occasion, four athletes finished in the top 25 in the now-discontinued short-course races.

Brian Fay’s 16th place was the best result by an Irish athlete at this level since Fionnuala McCormack finished 14th in the women’s race in 2013, and the best result for an Irish man since Alistar Cragg finished 16th in the short course race in 2004.

Noah Harris went with the early pace in the U20 men’s race, and was just half a lap short of also returning a great result. He was inside the top 20 going onto the final lap, but faded over the final stages to finish 38th.

National records

Mark English broke his own Irish records over both 600m (1:15.80) and 800m (1:44.65) in the space of five days. The former was essentially a solo run at the NIA, the later on the way to an impressive WIT silver win in Luxembourg.

Efrem Gidey was another to break his own Irish record, as he ran 27:38 in Valencia, the site of his previous best 12 months ago. He was pushed all the way by Jack O’Leary, who also dipped under the previous mark.

Diarmuid O’Connor added two points to his own national heptathlon performance with 5596 in Philadelphia.

Elizabeth Ndudi added 1cm to Kelly Propper’s national long jump record with 6.63, just short of her own outdoor record of 6.68m.

Sarah Leahy also bettered the best time recorded for 50m, with 6.41in Switzerland.

Among the numerous age-group records set in January were new U23 marks for Nick Griggs at both 3000m (7:32.79) and 5000m (13:19.90); an U23 800m record for Emma Moore (2:01.21) and a new U23 mark for Liam Lyons over 1000m (2:21.16). Ndudi’s aforementioned long jump mark was also a national U23 record.

More stats

World Indoor qualification standards

With qualification only opening in November, no Irish athletes had officially secured the standard for the World Indoors coming into 2026, though ranked second in the heptathlon, Kate O’Connor is already guaranteed qualification.

By the month’s end Bori Akinola (60m), English (800m), Griggs (3000m), Andrew Coscoran (3000m) and Sarah Lavin (60m Hurdles) had hit the World Athletics qualification standards.

Ciara Neville and Lauren Roy (60m), Moore and Maeve O’Neill (800m), and Ndudi (Long Jump) also bettered the Athletics Ireland B standard and, at the time of writing, are all currently within quota spots for the championships.

Irish athletes on Road to Toruń

European qualification standards

Unsurprisingly, it’s been a quieter month for European Championship qualification, though O’Leary secured the standard for the 10,000m, courtesy of his run in Valencia.

Ndudi (Long Jump) and Roy (200m) also secured Athletics Ireland B standards, which would make them eligible to be selected should they finish within quota spots based on world rankings for their respective events. Some of the sprinters, including Bori Akinola and Ciara Neville, are quietly adding to their ranking scores thanks to their fine recent form over 60 metres.

Irish athletes on Road to Birmingham

World tour events

Cian McPhillips was a clear winner of the 600m at the New Balance Grand Prix in Boston, the only WIT Gold meeting in January. Andrew Coscoran finished second in the 3000m at the same meeting and just missed the Irish record he set when winning this race in 2025. Griggs was fourth, Brian Fay 10th and James Dunne set the pace, in a race won by Australian emerging star Cameron Myers.

In addition to the WIT Silver meeting win for English in Luxembourg, Moore finished second, also at 800m in Luxembourg, while Sarah Lavin finished second in the 60m hurdles at the silver meeting in Paris. Bronze wins went to Akinola (60m) in Lyon and Lauren Callaghan (long jump) in Nantes. Akinola and Callaghan went on to set personal bests and take Challenger wins in Glasgow, where Niamh Carr added the mile win to the 2000m win she picked up the previous week at a Challenger meeting in Portugal.

Laura Nicholson won the mile at the Continental Tour Bronze meeting in Whanganui, New Zealand. Elsewhere, Darragh McElhinney got his season off to a good start with an impressive win over 3000m in Boston (Cat F meeting), though it looks like he’d need to go second on the Irish all-time list to secure a spot at the World Indoors, unless Coscoran opts to only contest the 1500m.

National titles

Laura Frawley (Nenagh Olympic) retained the national pentathlon title, while Mohammed Ibrahim Halil (Raheny) took the heptathlon title. The mixed 4x400m relay title went to Ratoath AC.

And if you thought January was busy, wait until you see what February has in store!

The indoor season is relentless, and numerous Irish athletes will again be chasing qualification standards, national records and personal bests across the globe.

Much of the attention will be focused on the east coast of the United States where Irish athletes will be competing at both the Millrose Games and the John Thomas Terrier Classic in Boston, but there is also action across Europe and in Ireland.

Irish in action at Millrose Games

The second of this season’s eight World Indoor Tour (WIT) Gold meetings will take place in New York on Sunday, and again there will be a strong Irish presence.

Cian McPhillips, who looked very impressive in his season opener over 600m at the New Balance Grand Prix in Boston last Saturday, will race his first 800m since finishing fourth at the World Championships last September.

The World Indoor standard of 1:45.90 and Mark English’s recent Irish record of 1:44.65 will be among the possible targets, though another win at this level - particularly against three fellow sub 1.43 athletes - will be just as important. Among his opposition are Bryce Hoppel, Donavan Brazier, Ben Pattison and Mohamed Attaoui.

Andrew Coscoran, who finished second in Boston, just missing his own Irish record but securing the World Indoor qualification standard, will race over the mile this weekend. The World 1500m finalist broke Eamon Coughlan’s indoor mile record and Ray Flynn’s overall record when he finished seventh last year.

Eric Favors opened his season with 19.95m on 10th January, and will be looking towards the Athletics Ireland B standard for World Indoors (20.45m).

The Millrose Games features quite a substantial pre-programme, and among the other Irish athletes competing are Margaret Hayden in the Women’s Weight Throw on Saturday and Lucas Lyons in the junior men’s mile. There are also Irish representatives in the 'Fastest Kid in the World' races.

The Irish descend on Boston in expectation of fast times.

The Boston University indoor track has a reputation for producing fast times, and while the strong middle distance fields that reputation attracts can’t guarantee personal bests and national records, they certainly increase the chances.

In addition to all the college students, a number of Irish athletes have just completed a stint of altitude training in Flagstaff, and they appear to be descending on Boston en masse for the John Thomas Terrier Classic on Friday (Women) and Saturday (Men).

Brian Fay, Nick Griggs, Callum Morgan, James Gormley, Dean Casey and Micheál Power are all in the top heat of the men’s 5000m. Griggs already has both the European standard (13:08.00) and the Commonwealth Games consideration standard (13:30.00), but both the national U23 (13:24.17) and senior (13:12.56) indoor records stand danger.

Darragh McElhinney and Jack O’Leary are among those taking on the 3000m. With just two spots available at the World Indoors, and Conscoran and Griggs already having secured the qualification standard (7:33.00) at this distance, a good run from either could cause a potential headache for selectors.

Having paced in Boston last week, James Dunne will be making his competitive return following injury. The Tullamore Harrier had a breakthrough over 1500m early last summer, when he ran 3:35.17. He will be joined in the mile by Lughaidh Mallon, who ran 3:56.09 outdoors last summer, recent U23 1000m record breaker Liam Lyons, and Irish Indoor champion Kevin McGrath. Cillian Kirwan and Conall Rogers will race over 800.

On the women’s side, Danielle Donegan, Anna Gardiner and Niamh O’Mahony will race the 5000m. Jane Buckley is entered for the 3000m, Cara Laverty and Maddy Mooney will race the mile, Gemma Galvin is entered for the 1000m and Maeve O’Neill will run her first 800m of the indoor season, having run 2:41.07 for 1000m in mid-January and 1:28.09 for 600m on this track in early December.

Elsewhere in the US

There are a number of other meetings in the US on Friday and Saturday.

Conor Kelly will race over 200m at the Razorback Invitational. Lucy-May Sleeman (60m and 200m), Elizabeth Ndudi (long jump) and Siun Quinn (high jump) are among the other Irish on the startlists.

Diarmuid O’Connor is entered for the shot put and high jump at the Harvard Invitational after improving his own Irish Heptathlon record last week.

Mark Milner (800m) and Ronan McMahon-Staggs (mile) are among the entries for the Washington Invite and Mile City in Seattle. McMahon-Staggs ran 3:51.85 for the mile on this track - which is longer than 200m, so doesn't count for indoor rankings or qualification - just over a year ago.

Check out our calendar page for details of other meetings where Irish athletes are competing.

European and Irish action

After moving to second on the Irish all-time list for the Pentathlon just two weeks ago, Anna McCauley will compete at the World Combined Events Tour Silver meeting in Tallinn on Sunday. Kate O’Connor broke the Irish record here last year before going on to have a season of dreams which included four championship medals.

Jodie McCann is on the startlist for the mile at the World Indoor Tour Silver Meeting de L’Eure in France on Sunday and Molly Scott (60m, 60m hurdles) is due to race at IFAM Gent Indoors, a WIT bronze event, on Saturday.

A little closer to home, the ScottishAthletics EAP (WIT Challenger) has a large number of athletes competing. Bori Akinola (60m) and Lauren Callaghan (Long Jump), will compete in the disciplines in which they won WIT Bronze meetings last week. Also on the startlists are Eimear Maher (Mile), Ciara Neville, Orla Comerford, Sarah Leahy and Molly O’Reilly (60m) and Rachel McCann. See our event page for full startlists.

Clodagh Walsh (Pole Vault), Michael Kent (Long Jump) and Saragh Buggy (Triple Jump) are all on the startlist for the Loughborough Indoor Open on Sunday. David Onwudiwe (Triple Jump) is entered for the South of England Championships, also on Sunday afternoon.

The Irish domestic action this weekend includes the Leinster Senior Championships on Saturday for which there are some strong fields, and the Munster Senior Championships on Monday.

There will be Irish interest in mid-week meetings in Ostrava, Czechia (World Indoor Tour Gold) and Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium, where some of the top 400m athletes will open their seasons.

*Update since publishing: McPhillips has withdrawn from Millrose Games.

After a successful European Championships and two fourths at the Olympics in 2024, and a 2025 season which brought European Indoor, World Indoor, World Championship, European Cross Country, European 10,000m cup, European U20, European U23 and World University medals for Irish athletes, it's difficult not to get carried away.

Irish Athletics has clearly arrived, and 2026 will again provide plenty of opportunities for current stars to add more silverware, for new stars to make a breakthrough, and for the long-time injured to remind us of their existence.

For the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic derailed the 2020 season, there won't be a global outdoor championship. But worry not; the new World Athletics Ultimate Championships, which will round out the season, aims to ensure that the World's top athletes will still compete against each other in 2026.

But even more exciting from an Irish perspective is the fact that both the European and the Commonwealth Games will take place just across the Irish Sea. There will be a third World Indoor Championships in three years, World Relays in Africa for the first time, World U20 Championships in Eugene, and European Cross Country Championships in Belgrade at the end of the year, with plenty more in between.

Here’s a summary of the significant international athletics events due to take place across the year, the majority of which will feature Irish athletes.
 

World Cross Country Championships, Talahassee, USA, 10 Jan

The World Cross Country Championships head back to the US for the first time since 1992, the year that Catriona McKiernan won the first of her four consecutive silver medals in the Senior Women’s Race. Talahassee will play host to the first-ever January edition of the now-biannual event.

Four Irish athletes have been selected to compete in Talahassee, with a number of the top performers from the European Cross Country Championships heading indoors, or taking on the Valencia 10km in an attempt to qualify for the European Championships in August.

Fiona Everard, Niamh Allen and Brian Fay, who have all finished 10th at recent editions of Euro Cross will participate in the senior races while Noah Harris will be the sole Irish U20 representitive.

Event website
Athletics Ireland selection policy
 

European Throwing Cup, Nicosia, CYP, 14-15 Mar

The indoor season won’t even have concluded by the time the top throwers open their 2025 campaigns at the European Throwing Cup in Nicosia, the site of unprecedented Irish throwing success in 2025.

After two consecutive silver medals in the U23 Hammer, Nicola Tuthill took gold at the 2025 edition. A move up to senior level shouldn't daunt the athlete who reached the World Championship final in Tokyo. 

Anna Gavigan (silver, U23 discus) and Oisín Joyce (bronze, U23 javelin) also won medals at the 2024 edition, and both are again eligible for the U23 category in 2025. Others who may make the trip are Conor Cusack (Javelin) who had a breakthrough 2025, Niamh Fogarty who broke the long-standing national discus record and Eric Favors who made another global championships in the shot put.

Event information
Athletics Ireland selection policy
Irish Athletes who have achieved consideration standards
 

World Indoor Championships, Kujawy Pomorze-Toruń, POL, 20-22 Mar

The 21st World Athletics Indoor Championships will be held in Toruń, in the Polish Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship from 20 to 22 March.

The 2025 edition saw Ireland win its first medal in 19 years as Kate O'Connor took silver in the women's pentathlon. With no global outdoor championship in 2026 - the first time since 2020 that there won't be a World or Olympic outdoor Championships - this may well be a competitive event, and medals may be even more difficult to come by.

Qualification will be based on entry standards, with any remaining places to fill quota based on the Top Performances list during the qualification window (1st November 2025 to 8th March 2026).

Each country can have two athletes per event, plus a Wild Card where applicable. Wild Cards will be allocated to 2026 World Indoor Tour winners. There is no entry standard for relays; any nation can enter a team.

Event website
Athletics Ireland selection policy
Qualification status of Irish athletes
 

World Race Walking Team Championships, Brazilia, BRA, 14 Apr

In April 2026, the World Race Walking Team Championships will take place in South America for the very first time. The Brazilian capital will also host the first championship event to feature walks at the half marthon and marathon distances.

Oisin Lane, who finished 28th in the 35km Walk at the World Championships in Tokyo, and David Kenny, who finished 11th over 20km at the European Race Walking Cup last spring, are likely to lead any Irish team that is selected.

Event website
Athletics Ireland selection policy
Irish athletes who have achieved consideration standards
 

World Relays, Gaborone, BOT, 2-3 May

The World Relays head to Africa for the first time in 2026. With no global championships to qualify for in 2026, it's unclear what role the World Relays will play in the overall calendar, and whether or not Athletics Ireland will send a team.

There will also be smaller fields than in last year's edition, with just 24 federations in each event. The top 8 teams from the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo have qualified. The host nation is also guaranteed a spot in each event. Remaining places will be allocated based on the top list during the qualification period (1st Januray 2025 to 5rh April 2026).

At the end of the 2025 track season, Ireland sit in qualificaiton spots for the Women's 4x400m, Women's 4x100m and Mixed 4x400m relays.

Event info
Athletics Ireland selection policy
Road to Garborone
 

European 10,000m Cup, La Spezia, ITA, 23 May

La Spezia in Italy will host the European 10,000m Cup. There will be A and B races in both men’s and women’s categories, with athletes seeded according to prior accomplishments. The addition of pacemakers allows athletes to avail of a rare opportunity to chase personal bests and championship qualification standards while surrounded by athletes of a similar ability.

Efrem Gidey won Ireland's first ever European 10,000m cup medal when he took the men's title in Pacé last year.

Event website
Athletics Ireland Selection Policy
 

European Off-Road Running Championships, Ljubljana-Kamnik, SLO, 5-7 Jun

The 3rd edition of the European Off-Road Championships will traverse the stunning landscape of the Kamnik–Savinja Alpine region in Slovenia.

The elites will compete over Uphill and Classic (up and down) Mountain races and a 52km trail race. Like with the inaugural European Running Championships, the event will be open to mass participants. 

Event website
 

Commonwealth Games, Glasgow, GBR, 27 Jul - 1 Aug

Having picked up a silver medal at the last edition in Birmingham four years ago, Kate O'Connor, should she choose to compete, would head to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow with clear medal expectations. Olympic medallist and two-time World Champion Katrina Johnson-Thompson would be her most likely rival for the Hepathlon title.

Other Northern Irish athletes who have already hit consideration standards are Nick Griggs (mile and 5000m), Callum Morgan (5000m) and Anna McCauley (Hepathlon). Others will look to secure their spot before the 14 June deadline.

Event website
Athletes who have achieved consideration standards
 

World U20 Championships, Eugene, USA, 5-9 Aug

The World U20 Championships will head to the Americas for the 3rd consecutive edition, having been held in Colombia in 2024 and Peru in 2021. The USA (also Eugene) last hosted this event in 2014.

Irish athletes have won just 5 medals at previous editions of the World Junior/U20 Championships: High Jump silver medals for Antoine Burke (1994) and Sommer Lecky (2018), 1500m silver for Ciara Mageean in 2010; Javelin bronze for Oisín Joyce at the last edition, and 4x100m silver for Molly Scott, Ciara Neville, Gina Akpe-Moses, Patience Jumbo-Gula, Rhasidat Adeleke in 2018.

European U20 Champion Conor Kelly (400m), who competed in Lima, is still young enough for the 2026 edition. Others that could potentially make the cut are European U20 finalists Cian Crampton (Discus), Theo Hanlon (Shot Put) and Dubem Amah (200m).

Event website
 

European Championships, Birmingham, GBR, 10-16 Aug

The European Athletics Championships will be held in Birmingham from 10 to 16 August 2026, marking the first time that the Championships will be held in the UK. Ireland had their most successful European Championships two years ago in Rome, with medals for Ciara Mageean (gold, 1500m), Rhasidat Adeleke (silver, 400m), the mixed 4x400m relay (gold) and the women's 4x400m (silver).

Kate O'Connor (Hepathlon), Cian McPhillips (800m) and Sarah Healy (1500m) are likely to also be among those in contention. Others to achieve the automation qualification standards before the end of the 2025 season are Israel Olatunde (100m), Sharlene Mawdsley (400m), Mark English (800m), Sophie O'Sullivan (1500m), Darragh McElhinney and Nick Griggs (both 5000m), Efrem Gidey (10,000m), Sarah Lavin (100m Hurdles), Nicola Tuthill (Hammer Throw), David Kenny (Half Marathon Walk) and Oisin Lane (Marathon Walk). Five of the six relay teams are also sitting in quota spots at the end of 2025, suggesting that this could be one of the biggest Irish teams ever at an international championship.

It's also likely to attract the biggest ever flock of Irish supporters.

Event website
Athletics Ireland Selection Policy
Qualification status of Irish athletes
 

World Athletics Ultimate Championships, Budapest, HUN, 11-13 Sep

The Ultimate Championships is a brand new competition which will run in the years where there is no World Championship and will close out the season. The first edition will take place in Budapest in September 2026. 

Proudly representing their countries and competing for the largest prize pot in track and field, only the world's very best athletes win the right to compete.

Automatic qualifiers include 2024 Olympic Champions, 2025 World Athletics Champions and 2026 Diamond League winners. The best performers of 2026 based on the World Ranking qualification system will complete the remainder of the spots (16 in individual events; 8 in relays).

There is no limit on how many athletes from a single country can qualify. While we won't know Irish qualifiers until much closer to the date (none have qualified automatically), only Cian McPhillips (800m) and Sarah Healy (3000m) would have made the initial cut in 2025.

Event website
 

World Road Running Championships, Copenhagen, DEN, 19-20 Sep

No Irish athlete has ever won a medal at either the World Road Running Championships or its precursor, the World Half Marthon Championships. While it's unrealistic to expect that to change in 2026, the fact that the Irish half marathon record was broken here in both 2024 (Efrem Gidey) and 2025 (Fearghal Curtin), would appear a good omen for Irish road runners.

Championship medals will also be contested over the mile and 5km, in a city renowned for fast times.

Event website
 

European Cross Country Championships, Belgrade, SRB, 13 Dec

The European Cross Country Championships will return to Friendship Park in Belgrade on 13th December 2026, the site of the 2013 event and the 2024 World Cross Country Championships. Irish athletes will be hoping for more medals, having won silverware at each of the past six editions. Nick Griggs is young enough to defend his U23 title, as will three of his title-winning teammates. Emma Hickey has three more years in the U20 category where she won bronze in 2025. And the senior men will likely be looking to upgrade their team silver from last year.

Event website

What a year 2025 has been for the field and multi-event athletes, with four international championship medals for Kate O’Connor, a world hammer final for Nicola Tuthill, new national records, breakthrough moments, and all-round momentum across many of the events.

Here’s a quick summary of the highlights from Irish field and multi events over the past year, along with what we might expect to see from these athletes in the season ahead.
 

Season of Dreams for O’Connor

Kate O’Connor started just six competitions in 2025. She set a new national indoor pentathlon in the first and won a World Championships silver medal and broke the National Heptathlon record in the last. In the intervening months she also picked up European Indoor bronze, World Indoor silver, the World University Games title, and broke the pentathlon and heptathlon records each on one other occasion.

Over the years, O’Connor has added 899 points to the national heptathlon record, and set new personal bests in every heptathlon and pentathlon discipline in 2025.

She ended 2025 as the second best in the world both by ranking (World Rankings) and performance (Top list). With World Indoor Championships, Commonwealth Games and European Championships all on the calendar, 2026 again provides multiple medal opportunities.
 

Three international medals, national U23 records, and a world final for Tuthill

Long before Tokyo places were confirmed, Nicola Tuthill had already had what can only be described as a successful season. After consecutive silver medals in 2023 and 2024, she finally won gold at the European Throwing Cup in Cyprus in March.

She then picked up silver at the European U23 Championships in Norway and the World University Games in Germany. She added 1.39 metres to her own national U23 record on 11th June and a further 4 cm at the National Senior Championships – where she took her fourth title – on 3 August.

But the icing on the cake came in Tokyo in September when, at 21-years-old, she made the World final.
 

Are we Javelin country now?

Oisin Joyce finished 2024 with a bronze medal in the Javelin at the World U20 Championships and started 2025 with a bronze medal in the U23 Javelin at the European Throwing Cup in March, throwing just 3cm short of the PB he set in Peru.

Despite injury halting his season before it really got going, Ireland wasn’t without an emerging javelin talent. Twenty-three-year-old Conor Cusack improved his best to 75.42m and elevated himself to third on the Irish all-time list.

While Terry McHugh’s Irish record is still some way off, Cusack and Joyce have the potential to ensure that the glory days of Irish javelin throwing are not all in the past.
 

Fogarty’s new discus mark

Ramona in Oklahoma is known as the place to go if you want to lob a discus a very long way. Niamh Fogarty made her first trip to the renowned venue early in 2025. After a few 55-56 metre results there, she finally got the hang of the wind assistance provided. On 27 April she launched the 2km implement out to 58.40m, adding 80cm to Patricia Walsh’s national record from 1984.

Fogarty won her seventh national discus title and her first in the shot put in August, after earning valuable points for Ireland in both events at the European Team Championships in June.
 

Ademola’s eight metre leap

Reece Ademola has long been considered one of Ireland’s top field event talents, and 7.97m in September 2023 hinted at what the future might hold. Injury intervened in 2024, however, and Ademola spent months recovering from surgery before making a return to competition in July this year.

Then in Santry in August, he jumped 8.00m (+2.6m/s) to take the Irish Senior title. Both that, and the wind-legal 7.93m (+1.6m/s) he produced that day, suggest that he is back to his best, and will have headed into the winter full of confidence. Irish record holder Ciaran McDonagh is the only other Irish athlete to have ever jumped eight metres in any conditions.
 

More multi-event madness

Kate wasn’t the only O’Connor breaking national multievent records in 2025. Twenty-three-year-old Diarmuid O’Connor – who finished fourth in the Decathlon at the European U20 Championships in 2021 – finally began to give some indication of what he’s capable of as a senior in 2024.

After a promising performance in December last year, he collected 5594 points at the Big East Conference Championships in February, adding 34 points to Joe Naughton’s National Heptathlon record. That record had been back in 2002, two months before O’Connor was born.
 

Consistent Favors

Eric Favors has been a staple name on the Irish teamsheet at major championships since 2022, having made it to two World Championships, two European Championships and an Olympic Games since then.

Despite spending most of the summer sitting in a quota spot for Tokyo, he left it very late, however, to achieve the required Athletics Ireland B standard (20.40) this time around. That he did on 8 August with a throw of 20.48. With his World Championship spot secured, Favors improved his season’s best to 20.75 on 21 August, the second furthest throw ever by an Irish man.
 

Gavigan gains

Anna Gavigan won silver in the U23 Discus at the European Throwing Cup in Cyprus. She finished eighth at the European U23 Championships in Bergen and improved her personal best to 54.20m, a distance that only three Irish women have ever exceeded, when taking the national U23 title in Tullamore.

With four metres separating them at their best, Fogarty is still the clear number one in Ireland, but she’ll need to bring her A game every time the two meet if she wishes to stay on top. Could a rivalry between these two take Irish women’s discus throwing to a world class level?
 

Young ones to watch

While none of them are throwing senior implements just yet, it’s exciting to see Cian Crampton, Thomas Williams and Theo Hanlon emerging in the throws. Crampton launched the 1.75kg discus to 58.32 in Loughborough in June, to break the Irish U20 record for the second time. He finished 6th at the European U20 Championships.

A personal best of 18.00 for the 6kg shot put in the qualifiers earned Hanlon a place in the European U20 final. Williams, the 2024 European U18 Hammer Champion, finished fourth at the European Youth Olympic Festival.
 

Elsewhere

Ruby Millet looks set to make a return in the long jump in 2025, where 2023 European U20 champion Elizabeth Ndudi already possesses world-class potential. Aoife O’Sullivan had a breakthrough year in the high jump.

Saragh Buggy received her first national championship defeat in a decade this year at the hands of Greek-national and Irish-resident Daphni Doulaptsi-Teeuwen, who exceeded 13 metres for the first time this summer. Might this competition give the St. Abban’s athlete fresh motivation in the year ahead?

Not all Irish field events contain international standard athletes at the moment, but it feels that more do than ever before. And even those which don’t, continue to provide intriguing and exciting battles on a national stage.

A rising tide lifts all boats, and with Irish athletics in rude health at the moment, the field eventers are determined not to be left behind.

With Irish athletes in flying form over every distance, there were numerous magical moments throughout the 2025 track season.

World Championship silver for Kate O'Connor, record-breaking runs from Cian McPhillips in Tokyo, and Sarah Healy’s European Indoor title are obvious highlights, but we’ve delved a little deeper to bring you ten races well worth a re-watch.

From cracking indoor battles to record-breaking relay runs, here are some of our favourite noteworthy track performances by Irish athletes, at home and overseas, during the past year.

1. Everyone wanted the national 5000m title

They were all there, with their feet, and their necks, on the start line. Ok, so Darragh McElhinney and Nick Griggs were in the 1500m instead, arguably a tougher race for athletes who would one week later run 13:02 and 13:05 respectively, but there was still depth we’re not accustomed to seeing at this level. Nobody was dodging a challenge this particular weekend.

Efrem Gidey had become Ireland’s first European 10,000m Cup medallist (and champion) in May. Brian Fay is the Irish record holder at the distance. Andrew Coscoran had spent the indoor season breaking national records.

Cormac Dalton, in finishing eighth in Brussels in 2023, was Ireland’s highest finishing senior man at European Cross Country Championships since Joe Sweeney’s 4th place in 2011. Jack O’Leary had showed a return to form when running 13:22 at the Morton Games a few weeks previously. John Travers, Michael Murphy, Mark Hanrahan and Niall Murphy might well have been battling for a medal any other year.

And here they all were, ready to battle it out for a title.

There were still seven athletes in contention with four laps to go, before it was whittled down to five 3800m in. Then, with 350m remaining, it became a battle between the two fastest athletes in the field (both over 5000m and in their typical last-lap speed). But who would it be? Fay, looking for a third consecutive title, or Coscoran seeking a tough double?

Watch the closing stages here!

2. Morton magic from McPhillips

After a mediocre start to a redemption year, Cian McPhillips announced his return to the Irish consciousness when he dropped 1:45.33 at an indoor meeting in Boston on 14th February. A fall at European Indoors, and another injury, halted the progress, and despite having the Athletics Ireland B standard, the route to Tokyo looked a steep one for the Longford man.

McPhillips was back by European Team Champs, where he finished third, and he left it late when getting up for second place at the Cork City Sports. But it was at the Morton Games just two days later that he announced himself in emphatic style: win, personal best, meeting record, stadium record, and, most crucially, the automatic qualification standard for Tokyo.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Watch the race here!

3. Blanket finish to National Senior 800m final

While the men were going head-to-head over 1500m and the 5000m, it was over 800m that the best of Irish female middle distance running were tearing strips off each other at this year's national seniors. And that was just the heats.

Two athletes – Jenna Bromell and Sarah Healy – had already run 2:00 earlier in the summer, Alex O’Neill was making steady progress and had run 2:01.70 to finish third at the Morton Games, and Maeve O’Neill had been sublimely consistent all summer, running a PB 2:02.66 and just missing out on the final at the European U23 Championships.

It was those four at the front of a tightly packed and talent-filled field through 200m and 400m. As the pace quickened, Maddison Mooney (the bronze medallist over 1500m in 2024) and Hannah Seagrave (fourth at the British Championships over this distance in 2024), put themselves in contention; there were still six in it with 100m to run.

The title, and the medals, were only decided in the final stride.

What a race.

Watch the race here!

4. Another National Indoor battle too close to call

Every now and again we’re treated to two well-matched athletes equally determined to clinch a national title, neither willing to give an inch. And the result is enthralling to watch.

Indoors this year, over 15 laps, it was the turn of Seán Tobin - not a stranger to the tight domestic head-to-head - and James Gormley, who was bound for World Indoors.

Just 0.01 in it in the end.

Watch the full race here!

5. Olatunde at the season’s death

Bori Akinola had been the Irish sprinter in form all season. He took the indoor 60m title in February ahead of national record holder Israel Olatunde and won a first outdoor title over 100m after his more accomplished counterpart missed the final through injury. He even ran the fastest all-conditions 100m by an Irish man when he clocked a windy 10.10 (+2.9) in London in June.

But even after the domestic season had wound down, and with little but Tokyo left on the calendar, there was still time for a final twist in the Irish sprinting storyline. Recovered from the abdominal muscle tear which had halted his season, Olatunde appeared on the startlist for the final Be Fast Today Track Academy (BFTTA) Outdoor Series at Lee Valley Athletics Centre in London on 30th August.

This doesn’t sound like one of the more glamorous meetings on the circuit – and it isn’t – but sprint meetings in London attract many top British athletes and usually return fast times.

Olatunde clocked 10.27 (+1.3) in the first round. Nothing to write home about, but a solid performance none the less.

Then, with a perfect 2.0 m/s following wind, the magic happened.

Irish sprinting had just taken another leap towards world class.

Olatunde was now a 10.08 sprinter.

Watch Olatunde run 10.08 here!

6. Raftery’s breakthrough run

You could see what it meant to him. Forty-four-point-nine-eight. His first time under 45 seconds. Not the win that the team might have appreciated, but the fourth place finish by Jack Raftery in the 400m at the European Team Championships was probably the most celebrated performance of the weekend.

Raftery battled for every place beside the 2024 World Indoor and European Champion Alexander Doom (BEL), Balkan Champion Rok Ferlan (SLO) and 2023 World University Games bronze medallist Mihai Sorin Dringo (ROU), as he became only the second Irish athlete to run under 45 seconds for the distance.

Next stop? David Gillick’s Irish record, perhaps?

Watch Raftery break 45 seconds 3:57:14 into this recording!

7. You wait 25 years for a bus…

Marcus Lawler was just five years old when an Irish team – through John McAdorey, Gary Ryan, Tom Comyns and Paul Brizzel - last broke the national 4x100m record. None of his relay teammates were even born.

On 21 June in Geneva, Lawler, together with Michael Farrelly, Bori Akinola and Israel Olatunde, however, broke an almost 25-year deadlock when they clocked 38.92, and just six days later, with Sean Aigboboh standing in for Bori Akinola sustained a niggle in the warm-up, they went even faster, winning their heat at the European Team Championships.

Watch the men's 4x100m relay team run 38.88 at 5:14:20 into this recording!

8. Thompson’s 10,000m triumph

European U23 titles don’t come around very often for Irish athletes. In fact, in the 14 editions of the event prior to 2025, there has been just one: Sophie O’Sullivan (1500m, 2023). But the Irish athletics tide is rising, and on 18th July, Anika Thompson added a second when she took victory over 25 laps in Bergen, Norway.

Two Germans – Kira Weis and Carolina Shäfer made a break on the first lap, and Thompson quickly covered the gap and joined them 400m in. These three gradually pulled away, with Thompson tucked in conserving as much energy as possible.

Before halfway it was down to just two, with Weis setting a metronomic pace, and Thompson keeping cool and keeping her cool just behind her. With two laps to go Thompson took the lead for the first time, and tried to break Weis.

Both were trying to muster a sprint, and with 250m to go, there was still very little between them. The harder Thompson tried to pull away, the harder Weis tried to stick with her.

Finally, with just half a lap remaining, the German cracked, and Thompson pulled away for a dogged victory in 32:31.47, just over 23 seconds faster than she’d ever run before.

Watch the entire race from 4:22:10 or the final 1200m from 4:53:12

9. Maher's Masterclass

Thompson and Nicola Tuthill – who won silver in the hammer while Thompson was racing her 10,000m –  set the ball rolling for the Irish team. But there was still more to come, as athlete after athlete stepped up and performed, none more so than Eimear Maher.

The DSD athlete came into 2025 with a PB of 4:22.01 over 1500m, and had already enjoyed a breakthrough season with a win at the Irish U23 Championships, and a PB 4:08.67 at the Morton Games. But the composure with which she ran the final in Bergen demonstrated that she doesn’t just have speed, but a great racing brain too.

Watch the entire race here

10. Efrem’s European Cup win

Ireland had never before won a medal at the European 10,000m Cup, but with the fastest time in the field, Efrem Gidey stood on the start line with a shot. He’d run 27:26.95 in California in March, a performance which earned him enough world ranking points to eventually make the quota for the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, and a time which saw him fastest European on the track in 2025.

Gidey had just missed out on a medal in the half marathon at the European Road Running championships earlier in the spring. He had the speed, he now just needed to get the tactics right.

And that he did in style, making a decisive move with 650m to go, and never looking like he was going to be beaten from that point.

Watch the entire race here

Watch last 700m here

Five bonus watches

Niamh Allen versus Anika Thompson, 5000m at National Senior Championships: Watch here

Sarah Healy’s European Indoor 3000m win: Watch here

Conor Kelly becoming the European U20 400m champion: Watch here

Another classic Morton Mile: Watch here

Sophie O'Sullivan winning the NCAA 1500m title: Watch here

The focus here has been on track events; we’ll cover momentous field event moments in a separate upcoming article.

Registration will be needed to watch the Eurovision Sport recordings above.

To say that 2025 has been a record-breaking year for Irish athletics is an understatement. With several Irish records broken, World and European medals won indoors and out, and curses broken, it was a memorable year for many.

Irish athletes won 25 International medals, from European Youth Olympics right up to World Senior Championships, this year. While there have never been as many international events at which athletes can win medals, this still makes 2019 (14 medals) and 2005 (13 medals) look mediocre years. As recently as 2016, Irish athletes won just three medals on the international stage. There were no international medals at all for Irish athletes in 1996.

Years, too, have passed in which no national senior records were broken. This year, the record books have been comprehensively rewritten.

Here we share some of the data and quirky statistics behind the 2025 season of dreams.

Championship success

After hitting the crossbar at the previous two editions, Irish athletes won not one, but three medals at the European Indoor Championships, courtesy of Sarah Healy (gold, 3000m), Mark English (bronze, 800m) and Kate O’Connor (bronze, Pentathlon).

Irish athletes have twice before won three medals at a European Indoor Championships (2009 and 2013), but on both occasions, all three medals were bronze. Healy is Ireland’s first female champion at this event. English’s medal took his European championship haul to five (a silver and two bronze indoors, two bronze outdoors).

Just two weeks later, O’Connor won Ireland’s first World Indoor medal in 18 years when she finished second in the pentathlon in Nanjing.

If the European Indoors didn’t indicate that 2025 was going to be a very good one for Irish athletes, then a small event in Nicosia a week later provided additional evidence that at least the nerdiest of athletics enthusiasts will have taken notice of. Five athletes travelled to the Cypriot capital for the European Throwing Cup, and three won medals.

After two consecutive silvers in the U23 Hammer, Nicola Tuthill won gold, Anna Gavigan took silver in the U23 Discus, while 2024 World U20 medallist Oisín Joyce won bronze in the U23 Javelin, placing Ireland equal third on the medal table, behind Germany and Italy. The five aforementioned medals are the only ones ever won by Irish athletes at an event held annually since 2001.

Sophie O’Sullivan (1500m) became the fifth Irish female to win an NCAA Track and Field title. Herself and Sonia O’Sullivan became the first Irish mother/daughter pairing to do so. And speaking of mother-daughter duos, NCAA 800m champion Roisin Willis (USA) is the daughter of 2000 Irish Olympian Breda Dennehy-Willis.

Efrem Gidey became not just the first Irish athlete to win a European 10,000m cup title, but the first to win a medal of any colour at this event. 

Four Irish athletes won five medals at the European U23 Championships, the most ever won by an Irish team at this event (two was the previous best return). In winning the 10,000m, Anika Thompson became only the second Irish athlete to win gold at this level (after O’Sullivan’s 1500m win in 2023), and she became the first Irish athlete to win more than one European U23 medal at a single edition when she added bronze in the 5000m three days later.

In winning silver in the 5000m, Nick Griggs brought his tally of individual European underage medals (track and field and cross country) to six (at the time). He also has three European Cross Country team medals.

O’Connor won Ireland’s fifth World University title in Germany (the previous champions are Ronnie Delaney, Sonia O’Sullivan, Niall Bruton and Thomas Barr). None of the eight athletes who competed for Ireland in 2025 finished outside the top 12.

Twenty athletes competed in individual events at the World Championships in Tokyo. They, along with two relay teams, made a total team of 27, the largest ever to represent the country at a World Championships (the athletics team for the Sydney Olympics, where 32 athletes competed, is the largest Ireland has ever sent to a global Championships).

The silver medal won by O’Connor in Tokyo is only the seventh ever won by an Irish athlete, and is the first in an event that isn’t either a middle distance race or a racewalk. O’Connor’s medal was also Ireland’s first global senior outdoor medal (World Championships or Olympics) since 2013.

In winning bronze in Lagoa, Emma Hickey became Ireland's first ever U20 medallist - team or individual - at the European Cross Country Championships (Linda Byrne, the only Irish athlete to have ever finished top 10 in all three age categories, finished 4th U20 in 2005, and the team finished 4th in both 2025 and 2008).

Nick Griggs became Ireland's most successful athlete at this Championship when he added U23 Individual and Team titles to the six medals (three individual and three team) he'd won at the previous four editions. He became Ireland's first male individual champion, and the first Irish athlete to win an underage title (the other three individual titles have all come in the senior women's race via Catriona McKiernan in 1994 and Fionnuala McCormack in 2011 and 2012). Griggs, Callum Morgan, Niall Murphy, Jonas Stafford and Loughaidh Mallon, won Ireland's third Men's U23 team title.

The senior men ended a twenty-five-year drought when they won team silver. Brian Fay and Cormac Dalton, who were both on the teams that finished fourth in Dublin (2021) and Brussels (2023), were joined by Jack O'Leary (Ireland's second-highest ever finisher in the senior men's race), Darragh McElhinney and Efrem Gidey.

Breaking actual records

O’Connor broke the national indoor Pentathlon record twice and the Heptathlon record twice. She has added 899 points to the latter since it was last held by someone else (Elizabeth Morland, 5815, 2018). Morland and O’Connor both competed at the European Junior Championships in Grosseto in 2017, where Morland finished fifth, in a then National senior record of 5801, and O’Connor, then just 16, finished eighth.

English broke the indoor 800m record twice and the outdoor record three times, before Cian McPhillips went on to break the latter twice in Tokyo. Together, they knocked 2.38 seconds off English’s previous mark from 2024, with English becoming the first Irish athlete to break 1:44 and McPhillips the first to break 1:43.

The Irish marathon record, previously held by Stephen Scullion, was broken three times in 12 months (Hiko Tonosa, 27 Oct 2024; Peter Lynch, April 2025; Fearghal Curtin, 18 October). Curtin’s time, subject to ratification, also betters John Treacy’s 1988 performance of 2:09:15 in Boston (no longer a record-eligible course), as the fastest time all conditions by an Irish man.

The Half Marathon record also received multiple revisions in the past 12 months. The record set by Gidey in September 2024 (1:00:51) was equalled by Tonosa in January, before being broken by Curtin in September (1:00:22).

Bori Akinola ran the fastest all-conditions 100m by an Irish man in London in June (10.10w; +2.9), before Israel Olatunde bettered that with a wind-legal 10.08, also in London, in September.

The men’s 4x100m squad of Michael Farrelly, Akinola, Marcus Lawler & Olatunde bettered the 25-year-old national record in Geneva in mid-June, before a slightly altered squad (Sean Aigboboh in for Akinola) went on to better it at the European Team Championships just a week later.

Niamh Fogarty broke one of the longest-standing records in the books (only Marita Walton-Lanigan’s shot put record from 1982 has stood for longer on the women’s side) when she launched the discus 58.40 metres in Romona, Oklahoma on 27th April, bettering Patricia Walsh’s mark from 1984.

Healy and Coscoran were on record-breaking rampages early in the Indoor season. Healy set new marks at 1500m before twice bettering her own 3000m record, while Coscoran ran new marks at 1500m, mile and 3000m. His mile time from the Millrose Games was also faster than the outright mile record.

Gidey broke both the 10,000m and 10km records. He knocked more than 12 seconds off Alistair Cragg’s 2007 mark in the former. In the latter, he shaved 3 seconds off Treacy’s mark from 1985.

In addition to the above, Diarmuid O’Connor set a new indoor Heptathlon record, while the women’s 4x100m team set a new mark outdoors.

Irish records

On the circuit

Sarah Healy became just the third Irish athlete – after Ciara Mageean and Rhasidat Adeleke - to win a Diamond League race when she won over 1500m in Rome on 6th June. She also finished in the top three in Rabat, where she ran 8:27.02 for 3000m and edged closer to Sonia O’Sullivan’s 31-year-old national record; in Rome, where she narrowly missed out on another 1500m win, and in London, where she ran 4:16.26 for the mile. She finished eighth in the final in Zurich.

In total, six athletes (Adeleke, Brian Fay, Cathal Doyle, Healy, English and Coscoran), competed in Diamond Disciplines at Diamond League meetings this summer, compared to eight last year. Healy was the only one to qualify for the Diamond League final.

Shauna Bosquet and Orla Comerford competed in para-athletics events held as part of the Diamond League programmes, with Comerford taking wins in the mixed category 100m in Stockholm and Eugene. It was at the Diamond League in London that the women’s 4x100m relay team broke the national record.

English won Continental Tour Gold meetings in Bydgoszcz, Hengelo and Beijing, and finished 2nd in Budapest.

The other Irish athletes to compete at Continental Tour Gold level this summer were O’Sullivan, Fay, Sharlene Mawdsley, Doyle, Jodie McCann, Coscoran, Sarah Lavin and Darragh McElhinney. In total, 11 athletes competed across the two top divisions of circuit meetings.

There was a World Indoor Tour Gold win for Coscoran (3000m, New Balance Boston), who also won the 3000m and finished 2nd overall in the Men’s Long-Distance category at the Miami Grand Slam Track meeting.

Top lists

With so many national records being set, and numerous athletes achieving number two all-time status, the national leads look mightily impressive at the end of the season, especially when, as we’ve done, indoor and outdoor performances are combined.

While many of those holding the national leads at the end of the season are unsurprising, a couple are less obvious.

Adeyemi Talabi was the fastest Irish woman over 100m this season, and Lucy-May Sleeman was the second fastest. With both calling an end to their season in June after a busy NCAA season, neither featured on the team which broke the 4x100m record in July.

The Irish women’s 100m all-time list had a major update in the space of just 24 hours in May as Talabi moved to 5th, Sleeman to 6th and Lauren Roy to equal 10th.

Doyle’s 3:32.15 is the national leader over 1500m, as World Championship finalist Andrew Coscoran never bettered the 3:33.40 national indoor record he set in February. Doyle and Coscoran are among the few top Irish athletes who have not yet achieved the automatic standard for the European Championships in Birmingham next year.

National leads

Where they stand at the end of the day

McPhillips (800m), O'Connor (Heptathlon) and Gidey (10,000m) all end the 2025 season at the top of the European performance lists. Healy is second for both 1500m and 3000m. Based on World Rankings, both Healy (1500m) and O'Connor (Heptathlon) are top-ranked Europeans right now.

At World level, O’Connor is second on both the rankings and the performance (top) list. Others in the top 20 on the World Rankings are Healy (6th 1500m), English (12th 800m), McPhillips (14th 800m), Adeleke (15th 400m) and Tuthill (20th Hammer).

On the performance lists, Healy is 14th at 1500m, 3rd at the mile and 11th over 3000m. McPhillips was the 5th fastest in the world over 800m, while English was 20th. Coscoran was 11th fastest over 3000m.

National Championship statistics

At 153 consecutive editions, the Irish Senior Track and Field Championships continues to be the longest-running national championships in the world.

Kate Veale (5000m Walk) won her sixth consecutive title (and 11th in total). There was a fifth consecutive title for Lavin (her 10th national 100m hurdles title in total), Sean Mockler (Hammer), and Michael Healy (Weight for Distance). English also won his 10th Senior 800m title. Saragh Buggy, who has been peerless in the triple jump for nearly a decade, had her nine-year-win streak broken, reinforcing just how incredible Terry McHugh’s 21 consecutive javelin titles (1984-2004) are.

Indoors, Buggy won her ninth Triple Jump title, Michaela Walsh (Shot Put) and Veale (3000m Walk) each won an eight consecutive title, while David Kenny picked up a fifth consecutive title in the 5000m Walk. At the other end of the scale, 2005 is the last time someone successfully defended a pentathlon title, with 10 different winners in the last 10 editions.

The Men’s Cross Country championship has had a different winner in each of the last ten editions.

More fourths

The most shocking thing about the Irish success at the European U23 Championships was less that they won 5 medals, and more that nobody finished fourth.

Those who did finish 4th this year: Lavin (60m hurdles, European Indoors); Gidey (Half Marathon, European Road Running Championships); Matthew Newell (5000m Walk), Thomas Williams (Hammer) and the Women’s Sprint Medley Relay at European Youth Olympics; Jack Raftery (400m, World University Games), Precious Akpe-Moses (200m, European U20 Championships) and McPhillips (800m, World Championships).

Other random facts and figures

In finishing 9th in the Marathon in Tokyo, five-time Olympian Fionnuala McCormack achieved her highest ever placing at a global event. Her second highest, 11th place in the steeplechase in Osaka, came 18 years ago. McCormack has now represented Ireland 46 times at senior championships. She only needs two more appearances to draw level with Terry McHugh, Ireland’s most capped athlete.

Five Irish athletes (Healy, English, Lavin, Becker and Coscoran) completed the Tokyo-to-Tokyo track and field streak (i.e. competed in the two Olympic Games, three World Championships and two European Championships from Tokyo 2020 to Tokyo 2025, inclusive).

After the fifth round of the hammer final at the World University Games in Germany, Tuthill was in the silver medal position with a best of 68.46m. Eighteen years earlier, Eileen O’Keefe won World University Games silver in the hammer with a best of 68.46m. Tuthill improved to 69.98m in the final round, securing the silver medal but undoing what would have been the stat of the year.

McPhillips’ 800m run in the World Championship final earned him 1532 World Ranking points (1262 for the time and 270 for placing 4th), the most achieved by an Irish athlete since the World Rankings were introduced in 2020. However, Coscoran’s indoor mile time, worth 1273 points on the World Athletics tables, is the best scoring performance ever by an Irish athlete.

English has competed at seven consecutive World Championships (2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2025); all at 800m. Phil Healy has competed at five consecutive European indoor Championships. Cormac Dalton and Danielle Donegan completed the Portugal to Portugal Euro Cross Country streak, having completed in all six editions from Lisbon 2019 to Lagoa in 2025.

Brian Fay became the first Irishman to finish top 10 in the senior men's race at Euro Cross on more than one occasion. He just pipped Cormac Dalton, who finished 11th in Lagoa, to that particular honour. Anna Gardiner competed in the U20 race at Euro Cross for the fourth time, the first Irish athlete, we believe, to do so. Emma Hickey not only won Wexford's first medal at Euro Cross, but we also believe that she is the first Wexford athlete to ever compete at the event (Wexford athletes have competed at World Cross in the past).

The 2:12:11 run by Paul O'Donnell in finishing 3rd (behind David McGlynn 2:11:01 and Ryan Creech 2:11.46) at this year’s Dublin Marathon is the fastest time ever needed to make the men’s national championship podium.

What next?

2025 has been a record-breaking year on many fronts. With World Indoor Championships, European Championships, Commonwealth Games, and many other events due to take place, 2026 could see more silverware coming the way of Irish athletes.

Twenty-five medals in 2025 has a very nice ring to it, and while hoping or expecting 26 in the year ahead might be a bit too optimistic, one can't help but feel that this is just the beginning of a golden era of Irish athletics.

We’ll keep you informed of who has achieved standards and who sits within quota for the various events, who wins medals, and what records are broken. But we also hope to inform you of some of the less obvious achievements and statistics.

References: The information in this article has been compiled using competition results and data from the World Athletics rankings and toplists; the Athletics Ireland toplists and roll of honour documents, and various other online sources.

Original article published 1 Nov 2025; updated 23 Dec to include the European Cross Country Championships results and statistics.

The 20th World Athletics Championships will start in Tokyo this Saturday, 13th September. More than 2200 athletes, representing almost 200 countries, will compete for 49 World titles across the nine days of competition.

Among them will be 28 Irish athletes, 21 of whom have qualified in individual events, along with teams in the Women’s 4x400m the Mixed 4x400m relays.

Irish participants

While medals are not expected, the Irish team boasts plenty of experience, including World University Games Champion and World Indoor medallist Kate O'Connor (Heptathlon), and her fellow European indoor medallists Mark English (800m) and Sarah Healy (1500m).

Andrew Coscoran made the semi-final of the 1500m at the Olympic in Tokyo in 2021 and Cathal Doyle made the semi-final in Tokyo last year. Both will be looking to advance beyond the heats. Coscoran is entered for the 5000m, his first major championship at this distance, alongside Brian Fay and Darragh McElhinney, the two fastest Irishmen ever at the distance.

This will be English's 7th World Championships. He will be joined in the 800m by Cian McPhillips, who'll be competing at his first. Laura Nicholson is another new to competing at this level, and she'll be taking on her first major championship alongside Healy and Sophie O'Sullivan in the women's 1500m.

Efrem Gidey will be competing in the 10,000m, also his first taste of World Championship competition, after breaking the Irish Record and winning the European 10,000m Cup earlier this year.

Sarah Lavin (100m hurdles) ran a National Record of 12.62 to finish 5th in the semi-finals in Budapest two years ago. She'll hope to get somewhere close to that form when she takes to the track next week.

Sharlene Mawdsley and Sophie Becker are both due to race in both the mixed and women's 4x400m relays, but are also on the startlist for the 400m. The European Championship qualification time - 51.20 - should either hit it, would be a welcome bonus heading into the winter.

Oisin Lane, another at his first global senior championships, will open the Irish account in the 35km walk, the very first competition of the Championships in the early hours of Saturday morning. 2021 Olympian David Kenny will be competing at his third World Championships in the 20km walk.

Fionnuala McCormack, Ireland's most capped female athlete and a five-time Olympian, hasn't competed at a World Athletics Championships since her steeplechase days in 2011. This time she'll be competing in the Marathon. Irish record holder Peter Lynch and former record holder Hiko Tonosa will contest the men's marathon.

Having finished 13th in Budapest and 14th in Paris, O'Connor will be looking to break into a global top-10 for the first time. In the form of her life this season, the Irish record again stands danger.

Nicola Tuthill is edging ever closer to Eileen O'Keeffe's national Hammer record, and that's the sort of mark that would see her make the final. Multi-events aside, Ireland have not had a field event finalist at global level since Deirdre Ryan finished 5th in the High Jump at the World Championships in 2011. 

Irish Shot Put record holder Eric Favors, now a regular at this level, completes the individuals.

Rachel McCann, Jack Raftery, Conor Kelly and Cillín Green join Mawdsley and Becker on the Mixed 4x400m relay squad, while McCann, Cliodhna Manning, Michelle Duggan and Jenna Breen complete the women's 4x400m relay squad.

Following the action

To help you follow the action, we’ve put together an Irish-specific timetable, which we will update throughout the competition as Irish athletes qualify through to semi-finals and finals of their respective events.

We’ll also keep you up to date with all the ways you can watch and follow the action.

Field-a-Team: Tokyo

If you’d like to get more involved with the action in Toyko, you might consider taking part in Field-a-Team: Tokyo, our fan-engagement competition.

Unlike traditional prediction competitions, athletes in your team will score points simply by finishing in the top 8, and you just have to predict the medallists in 14 events, not all 49.

The winner will be the player whose team has accumulated the most points. There will be no prizes, except for the honour of being the first TrackAthletes World Championship Field-a-Team winner!

Other news

Irish teams have been selected for two other global events that start later this month. Thirty-three athletes are due to compete at the World Mountain Running and Trail Running Championships in Canfranc, Spain, from 25th to 28th September. They’ll be led by seasoned internationals Zak Hanna and Sarah McCormack.

Three Irish athletes will compete at the World Para Athletics Championships in New Delhi, India, from 27th September to 5th October. Three Irish athletes have been selected. Orla Comerford (100m and 200m) and Greta Streimikyte (1500m) will compete in T13 events, while Lana Sutton (100m and 200m) will compete in the T38 category.

Qualification for next summer's European Championships and Commonwealth Games has already begun. We'll keep these up to date right until the close of qualification next summer.

As we wrap up our first track season, the TrackAthletes team would love your feedback on the site. We are very grateful for all the generous donations we received over the past few weeks. If you didn’t get a chance to donate, and would like to do so, you can do so here.

As some of Europe’s top Under 20 Championships reach the climax of their seasons, senior athletes will be taking what could be a final shot at Tokyo qualification, while some of the province’s top talent will be on display at the Northern Ireland and Ulster Championships.

European Under 20 Championships

A team of 38 Irish athletes have travelled to Tampere in Finland for the European U20 Championships, where the male one-lap athletes will be particularly hopefully of medals. Conor Kelly is the fastest European U20 this year, and him and his teammates have also run the fastest 4x400m time in Europe this year.

Times, however, mean little at underage championships, where tactical nous and putting in a big performance on the day can lead to breakthrough performances and unexpected medals.

Either way, expect four action-packed days – all available to watch on Eurovision Sport.

Oordegem awaits

Saturday's IFAM Oordegem has a particularly strong entry – both from Ireland and further afield - for a Continental Tour Bronze meeting.

The men’s 5000m boasts 6 athletes with personal bests of 13 minutes or better – the ideal standard for Nick Griggs and Darragh McElhinney who are chasing Tokyo spots. That’s assuming they make it into the A race. Efrem Gidey, Cormac Dalton and Callum Morgan are also entered at this distance.

There is the chance of another head-to-head between Mark English and Cian McPhillips over 800m (English said after his win at Nationals on Sunday that he was heading back to altitude before worlds, but his name appeared on the entries here earlier this week).

Newly minted National 400m champion Sophie Becker (400m) is another whose name only appeared this week. Other one-lap entrants include Cliodhna Manning and three of the top four from the men’s race last Sunday (Chris O’Donnell, Ciarán Carthy and Andrew Egan).

Ciara Neville will be looking to build on recent momentum. She is entered for both the 100m and 200m, as is National 200m Champion Marcus Lawler.

Alex O’Neill (800m), Laura Nicholson (1500m) and Roisin Flanagan (5000m) all still have outside chances of making the team for Tokyo. Nicholson, who already has the Athletics Ireland B standard, will be looking for enough points to maintain her precarious spot within quota, while O’Neill and Flanagan first need to secure the respective standards of 2:01.00 and 15:22.00.

Seán Donoghue, Shane Bracken and Lughaidh Mallon are among those entered in the 1500m, a particularly strong event for the Irish men at the moment.

Other Continental Tour meetings

Irish athletes will be competing across a handful of other Continental Tour Bronze and Challenger meetings over the coming days.

Sarah Lavin (100m hurdles) is the sole Irish athlete on the startlists for the Serbia Athletics Meeting on Thursday where she will be looking for another positive performance.

National bronze medallist Andrew Thompson (800m) and Paralympian Greta Streimikyte (1500m) are among the Irish entrants for the final British Milers Club Grand Prix in Trafford on Saturday.

Brian Fay (3000m) is on the most recent startlist for the Folksam Grand Prix in Sollentuna on Sunday and Cathal Doyle will race the 1000m in Białystok (Poland) on Saturday.

Northern Irish and Ulster Senior Championships

While some are likely not to compete, entries for the Northern Ireland and Ulster Championships includes Sean Aigboboh (100m), Callum Baird (100m, 200m), Orla Comerford (100m, 200m), Sarah Leahy (100m), Kate O’Connor (200m, 100m hurdles), Rachel McCann (200m), Kate Doherty (400m), Anna McCauley (100m Hurdles, Long Jump), Lauren Callaghan (Long Jump), John Kelly (Shot Put) and Anna Gavigan (Discus Throw).

At close of play on Sunday, there will be just two weeks left in the Tokyo qualification window. Dreams could be very well made, or broken, this weekend.

The National Senior Championships will get August started, and the Diamond League final will draw it to a close. The European U20 Championships will take place in Tampere (Finland) from 7th to 10th, and athletes not yet guaranteed their spot in Tokyo will be making a last-ditch effort to pick up ranking points and achieve standards before the close of the qualification window later this month.

National Championships

The Irish Senior National Championships will be held in Santry stadium on 2nd and 3rd August. Irish titles are always highly coveted, and some exciting racing is guaranteed. We’ve highlighted elsewhere some of the events and athletes to look out for.

Both days of the National Championships will be shown live on the Athletics Ireland Youtube channel. The 100m, 400m, 800m and 1500m track finals will be shown live on RTÉ 2 from 5:00-7:30pm on Sunday evening.

Diamond Leagues

While the season may feel like it’s drawing to a close, there are still regular-season Diamond League events in Silesia (16th August), Lausanne (20th August) and Brussels (22nd August), as well as the final in Zurich on 27th and 28th of August.

Startlists are not yet available for any of these events, but we know that Sarah Healy has already done enough to qualify for the final in the 1500m and that she will race both that and the Silesia meeting. She has had an outstanding year already, and has picked up four top-three finishes in the earlier meetings this season.

Diamond League events are shown on Virgin Media.

European U20 Championships

A very strong Irish team will head to Tampere in the coming days for the European U20 Championships. Conor Kelly and the men’s 4x400m relay team, both at the top of the 2025 European U20 rankings, are among those with medal aspirations.

Sean Doggett (400m) and Cormac Dixon (3000m, 5000m) and others will be looking for top 8 finishes. Ireland have qualified teams in all four relays, ensuring that many athletes will be exposed to competition at this level for the first time.

All sessions of the championship will be shown live and on demand on Eurovision Sport.

Continental Tour Meetings

The penultimate Continental Tour gold of the 2025 season, the Gyulai István Memorial/Hungarian Athletics Grand Prix will take place in Budapest on 12th August. Among the world starts announced to date are Femke Bol, Mondo Duplantis and Miltiádis Tentóglou. While it’s not yet known if any Irish athletes will be joining them, this promises to be one of the best meetings of the year. Continental Tour Gold meetings tend to be shown on the World Athletics streaming platform.

The Continental Tour silver meetings in Banská Bystrica (Slovakia) on 8th August and Bern (Switzerland) on 16th August, will offer final opportunities for athletes to boost their Road to Tokyo rankings before the end of the qualification window. We’ll update these meetings with Irish athletes if and when any are named on the startlists.

IFAM Oordegem (Belgium) on 9th August (Continental Tour Bronze) promises to be a busy one for Irish athletes, and may be a last-chance opportunity for some to make the team for Tokyo. Nick Griggs, Darragh McElhinney, Efrem Gidey, Jack O’Leary, Cormac Dalton and Roisin Flanagan are all entered for 5000m. Shane Bracken and Seán Donoghue are listed for the 1500m, while Cian McPhillips, Emma Moore and Alex O’Neill are all down for the 800m. Athletes entered for the 400m include Jack Raftery, Cillín Greene, Chris O’Donnell, Cliodhna Manning, Arlene Crossan and Kelly McGrory.

The final BMC Grand Prix (Continental Tour Challenger) will be held at Trafford on 9th August and is likely to feature Irish athletes.

Among the current entries for the Continental Tour Challenger Meeting voor Mon in Belgium on 16 August are Chris O’Donnell (200m, 400m), Lauren Cadden (400m), and Nick Griggs and Shanee Bracken (1500m).

Other events

Irish athletes will be looking for fast times, big jumps and long throws, and to make the most of late-season form, at a number of meetings in the UK over the coming weeks. With the qualification window now open for next summer’s European Championships in Birmingham, there’s still much to play for.

Indeed, entries for the Northern Ireland and Ulster Senior (open) Championships include a number of athletes who’ll be looking to make the Northern Ireland team for Birmingham. Kate O’Connor and Anna McCauley have both already secured the consideration standard in the heptathlon. O’Connor is entered for the 200m and 100m hurdles while McCauley is due to compete in the long jump and 100m hurdles.

Other notable entries include Sean Aigboboh (100m), Callum Baird (100m, 200m), Orla Comerford (100m, 200m), Sarah Leahy (100m), Rachel McCann (200m), Lauren Callaghan (Long Jump), John Kelly (Shot Put) and Anna Gavigan (Discus Throw).

The Stratford Speed meetings have been a happy hunting ground for Irish athletes in search of fast times, and it was at the August edition of last year’s series that Israel Olatunde set the national 100m record. Early entries for that event this year (17 August) include Olatunde, along with Michael Farrelly, Sean Aigboboh, Molly Scott, Ciara Neville and Sarah Leahy.

Ireland’s top pole vaulters this season – Conor Callinan and Clodagh Walsh – are both among the Irish entries for the Vault Manchester Summer Series meeting on 6th August.

A number of Irish athletes broke personal bests at the British Milers Club Record Breakers meeting at Tooting Bec last year, and some may return for mid-week action there on 20th August.

Two big half marathons towards the end of the month will herald the start of the autumn road racing season. The Antrim Coast Half Marathon in Larne on 24th August is attracting some of the biggest global names in endurance running with Greffory Kamworor and Joshua Cheptegei among those expected to start. Less than a week later, the National Half Marathon Championships will take place in Tullamore. Both races should feature strong domestic fields.

Before then, Peter Lynch, Barry Keane & Fearghal Curtin, three of Ireland's top road runners, are due to compete at the Beach to Beacon 10km in Cape Elizabeth (USA) on Saturday 2nd August.

The sometimes complicated, often cumbersome system of qualification by ranking points was first introduced for the 2020 Olympics. As we reach the three-and-a-half weeks to go point on our second trip along the Road to Tokyo, it’s worth taking stock of who is still on the journey, what they still have to do, and what impact this weekend’s National Senior Championships might have.

The basics

While, for the majority of events, qualification standards from 1st August 2024 have been acceptable, rankings are calculated for a 12-month period, so only performances between 25th August 2024 and 24th August 2025, in addition last year’s European Championships (most recent global championships) and Olympic Games performances, can contribute to an individual’s ranking score.

The relatively generous placing points available for National Championships (classified as category B events, the same as Continental Tour Silver meetings), means that results on Saturday and Sunday could have a significant impact on final rankings.

The often-tactical distance races at National Championships, however, means that the performance scores are sometimes so low that no matter how many additional points are on offer, they’re not going to improve an individual’s score.

And while athletes might be excited by the potential boost that a win in a fast time (or long distance) might give their ranking, they should remember that athletes from most other countries are also benefiting from relatively easy access to category B points this weekend.

For the past two years, the National Championship weekend fell right at the close of the qualification window, so it held particular significance for those still seeking Auto Qs, B standards and ranking points.

This year, athletes will still have three weeks to pick up points and get themselves within a quota spot for Tokyo, but there is an ever-diminishing number of opportunities to do so. Few athletes who do not already have the Auto Q will be invited to any of the remaining three regular-season Diamond League meetings, or the Continental Tour Gold (Cat A) meeting in Budapest.

Continental Tour Silver (Cat B) meetings in Slovakia and Switzerland may provide further qualification opportunities, as would an outstanding performance at any of the half-dozen or so remaining European-based Continental Tour Bronze meetings.

Irish athletes already selected and qualified

Irish athletes who benefited from last Summer’s Olympics being included in the qualification window include Rhasidat Adeleke, Sharlene Mawdsley, Sarah Healy, Sophie O’Sullivan and Sarah Lavin who all achieved the standard in Paris.

Andrew Coscoran (1500m) achieved the required mark indoors and Mark English, Cian McPhillips (800m) and Cathal Doyle (1500m), as well as Adeleke in the 200m, did so earlier this summer. Barring injury, there isn’t currently any reason why these athletes shouldn’t all be on the plane to Tokyo.

The women’s 4x400m relay and the mixed 4x400m relay both secured their spots at the World Relays in early May. Results in the 400m races this weekend may well help determine the makeup of these teams.

Marathon runners Hiko Tonosa, Peter Lynch and Fionnuala McCormack were all within quota at the end of the qualification window for that event, and have already been selected for Tokyo.

Athletes within quota, with the B standard

In addition to obtaining a quota invite from World Athletics, Irish athletes must also have achieved the B standard set by Athletics Ireland, or be selected for a relay team (i.e. already be on the plane), to be selected for the Irish team.

Kate O’Connor (Heptathlon), ranked 13th with 24 places available is the best placed of all the Irish athletes currently within quota. With few multi-event competitions still to take place, she is all but guaranteed her spot in Tokyo.

Nicola Tuthill (ranked 22 in the Hammer, with 36 places available) is almost certain to join her. Unlike O’Connor, who will now turn her attention to individual disciplines, Tuthill does still have the opportunity to improve her ranking score; the win on Sunday with a throw in the region of 68 metres would do just that.

It would appear that David Kenny (20km Walk) and Oisin Lane (35km Walk) have also done enough to secure their place in Tokyo. They are ranked 47th and 32nd, respectively. While Kenny is due to race the 10,000m on Saturday, he is unlikely to improve his ranking, as the event, not being a championship distance, only carries category D status.

The men’s 5000m is potentially interesting from an Irish perspective. Brian Fay currently sits in 36th position, with 42 places available. Not all the athletes ahead of him will choose to do the 5000m in Tokyo, but there may well be athletes who have not yet completed the required three events or have a 'dud' performance to drop from their score, and who will shoot up the rankings after their national championships or one of the subsequent meetings.

Fay is entered for the 5000m on Sunday, but in addition to winning he would need to run 13.17, or faster, to improve his ranking. Either way, he currently looks like the most likely of the Irish to make Tokyo.

Coscoran, has indicated that he would also like to make it to Tokyo in 5000m as well as the 1500m. He currently sits in 38th place in the longer event.

Should he choose the 5000m on Sunday, the win in 13:51 would improve his placing (his highest score is much higher than Fay’s and his lowest score is much lower). The win and anything faster than 13:43 would see him overtake Fay in the rankings.

Athletes not within quota, with the B standard

While this group of athletes, which includes Sophie Becker, Jack Raftery and Laura Nicholson, need points rather than a specific performance, a good performance would help maximise the points they get and the likelihood of gaining one of those coveted quota spots.

Having been injured for part of the season, Becker is currently 10 spots outside a quota space. While she would need to win in 50.67 (which would be inside the Auto Q anyway) or faster to make the quota cut-off next week, the win and anything faster than 53.85 would improve her score ahead of other race opportunities. The win, of course, is not guaranteed.

To date, Raftery has completed sparingly during the qualification window, and while this 44.98 personal best at European Team Champs earned him 1221 points, his three lowest scores (1143, 1107 and 1100,) will all need to be upgraded dramatically if he has any chance of making the individual event.

The win on Sunday in 45.69 (the time he ran in the World University Games final) would see him still needing two performances worth 1245 points to make the leap currently required. That would probably require a couple of Diamond League starts. A time in the region of his 44.98 personal best on Sunday would make the work required in the coming weeks a little more achievable.

Nicholson hit the Athletics Ireland B standard early in the NCAA season. The World Championships may not even have been on her mind at the time. With 56 quota spots available, an increase on previous championships, Nicholson may have an easier task than most to make the team.

The win, and something in the region of 4:13 would give her enough points to be within quota as things currently stand, and while results elsewhere are likely to raise that bar, she may benefit from withdrawals and non-selections of athletes ahead of her.

Israel Olatunde (100m) has considerable work to do if he has any hope of making the quota cutoff. If he has Tokyo aspirations, he’ll be hoping for a 2.0 m/s following wind on Sunday, helping him to the win in a very fast time; multiple withdrawals from the Road to Tokyo rankings; and maybe even a Diamond League start or two later in August. Tokyo is not impossible, but it certainly seems unlikely.

Despite racing the 1500m this weekend, Darragh McElhinney still has the opportunity to make Tokyo in the 5000m. He is due to race that distance in Oordegem, Belgium on 9th August. While he has already hit the Athletics Ireland B standard, he may need to run faster again to get inside the quota.

Efrem Gidey is just 4 spots outside the quota for the 10,000m. With no 10,000m this weekend; Gidey is set to race the 5000m. He’ll be hoping that results at National Championships elsewhere don’t scupper his chances of making the team for Tokyo and that he benefits from withdrawals and non-selections of athletes from other federations.

Jenna Bromell has run inside the Athletics Ireland B standard for the 800m, but has struggled to get in the races required to achieve the required ranking. Indeed, she’ll need both the heats and finals this weekend just to meet the required five performances. A place in Tokyo is therefore unlikely.

Luke McCann (800m) and James Dunne (1500m), who have the required B standards are both currently injured, and Sophie O’Sullivan, who has the B standard in the 800m, is likely to focus on the 1500m.

Athletes in quota without the B standard

Eric Favors has spent the last month picking up ranking points, moving from just outside quota, to four spots inside it. It now appears that all he needs to do is get the Athletics Ireland B standard of 20.40.

Favors set a new season’s best of 20.05 in his most recent competition, and will be looking to improve further on Saturday. He’ll then return to the US where he’ll have some final opportunities to achieve the standard if he hasn’t already done so. His PB and Irish record is 20.93 from April last year.

Jodie McCann made the 2024 Olympics at 5000m, but appears to be focusing on the 1500m this season. Her best performance of the season - 4:09.18 run indoors in February – is short of the 4:08.00 Athletics Ireland B standard. McCann’s PB is 4:08.34 from February 2024.

Others

A small number of other athletes have an outside chance of still making the team. Nick Griggs is probably the most likely of those. He doesn’t have a B standard, and would likely need to hit the Auto Q (3:33.00) to make it to Tokyo in the 1500m.

He’s more likely targeting the 5000m, which, like McElhinney, he’s due to race in Oordegem. There, he would need the win, and to go well inside the 13:18.00 B standard to have any hope of making the quota.

Of course, any athlete who hits the Auto Q would no longer need to worry about ranking points.

And so...

As things currently stand, 17 individuals and two relay teams would make it to Tokyo. The team may grow (or shrink) slightly over the next three weeks, but the situation is unlikely to change dramatically, at least until withdrawals are made. Either way, we'll keep the status of Irish athletes on the Road to Tokyo updated over the coming weeks.

Note: all calculations and references to quota cut-offs are based on the current points needed. These points will increase based on results at other national championships this weekend, and other meetings over the coming weeks, though there will be retired athletes, athletes qualified in multiple events, injured athletes, athletes serving doping bans and athletes not likely to be selected by their national federation taking up spots in the current quota allocation. Athletes will move up once these athletes have been withdrawn at the close of the qualification period.

This 2025 World Indoor Championships will take place this weekend in the Chinese city of Nanjing. Six Irish athletes are due to compete, including recent European Indoor medallists Sarah Healy (3000m) and Kate O’Connor (Pentathlon).

A proud history

Across the previous 20 editions, Irish athletes have won nine individual medals - in track events from 60m hurdles to 3000m - as well as a bronze medal in the men’s 4x400m in 2004.

Marcus O’Sullivan and Frank O’Mara have five world indoor titles between them, with O’Sullivan winning the men’s 1500m in 1987, 1989, and 1993, and O’Mara taking 3000m golds in 1987 and 1991.

Indeed, 1987 - the second time the event was held - was a particularly successful edition for the Irish, with Paul Donovan also taking silver behind O’Mara.

Sonia O’Sullivan (3000m silver in 1997) won Ireland’s next medal, and the most recent in the middle distances.

Paul McKee won bronze in the 400m in 2003; Rob Daly, Gary Ryan, David Gillick and David McCarthy won the historic relay medal in 2005; and Derval O’Rourke took the 60m hurdles title in 2006.

With 10 medals, including six titles, in the first 21 years of the competition, Irish athletes have now gone 19 years without a World Indoor medal.

Irish contenders

Unlike the European Indoors, we have no outstanding medal contenders, but Healy and O’Connor certainly have an outside shot at making the podium. Andrew Coscoran (1500m; 3000m), sixth at European Indoors, could finish higher here than he did in Apeldoorn.

Sarah Lavin (60m Hurdles) - Ireland’s highest individual finisher in Glasgow last year with fifth place - will be looking to continue the progress she showed at European Indoors, and will, at the very least, be looking to finally get into the 7.8s.

Sophie O’Sullivan (1500m), the only member of the team not to have competed at the European Indoors will come here with fresh legs, while James Gormley (3000m) will look to build on his first experience of racing in the green.

Indoor running has come a long way since 1987, so double-gold is a lot more difficult to achieve these days. That said, Irish athletics is in a much better place that it was nine years ago, when a team of just one was send to the 2016 World Indoor Championships in Portland.

How they got here

Athletes qualified for Nanjing based on performance (either Auto Q or by being next best on the toplist) or Wildcard, apart from the multievents, where athletes qualified by world ranking, and the relays for which any country could enter a team.

The target was to fill approximately half the fields with Athletes who had achieved the Auto Q, either indoors or outdoors, since 1st September 2024. In most track events, however, approximately a third of the final entries are made up of those who hit Auto Qs, and for the field events it is far fewer.

Up to two qualified athletes from each country can compete in each event, in addition to a maximum of one wild card entrant per country – which is awarded to the current year’s World Indoor Tour winners.

Because of the protracted build-up to this event, World Indoor Tour winners from 2019 and 2020 (subject to showing current form) were also eligible for a Wild Card this time around.

The remaining places were allocated based on the next best performances – achieved indoors or out – during the qualification window. Some events, most notably the women’s 400m, have not met their target quota, and both relays will be straight finals.

Of the Irish team, Healy, Coscoran and Lavin all achieved the Auto Q indoors and O’Connor qualified via her ever-improving world ranking. O’Sullivan, thanks to an outdoor performance earlier this year, was just outside the quota at the close of the qualification window. Herself and Gormley, who was a bit further off the cut-off, both made the team when withdrawals of other athletes moved them within the quota.

Mark English and Cian McPhillips were both named in the selected team, but have been forced to withdraw due to illness and injury respectively.

Other Irish athletes were within the quota at close of qualification (or close enough to be moved up), but had either ended their season or had not achieved the Athletics Ireland B standard.

And so, we have a team of six. Can they add to Ireland’s medal tally?

How we got here

Is a second major indoor championship in the same season unusual I hear you ask? Yes, it is, and it certainly wasn’t the original plan, but it is not completely unheard of.

The European Indoors, which predated the World Indoors, began life as an annual event, and continued thus, even after the World Indoor Championships were introduced in 1985. The first three editions of the biannual World Indoor Championships therefore ‘clashed’ with European Indoor years, before the continental decider was also reduced to a biannual event.

European and World Indoor Championships are now normally held in alternative years, but Covid-related cancellations are still having an impact on the global athletics schedule.

Nanjing was originally due to host the event in 2020. The event was pushed back to 2021, later cancelled, and then to 2023. Belgrade hosted the 2022 event, but Chinese pandemic regulations meant that the Nanjing event was again delayed.

In the meantime, Glasgow (2024) and Toruń (2026) had already been awarded future editions, but World Athletics were keen to keep the Chinese onside, particularly since the venue – Nanjing’s Cube – was purpose-built for the event. And so, they added the event to the 2025 calendar.

Nanjing essentials

Nanjing, a city of approximately 9.5 million people is located in the Yangtze River Delta, approximately 300 kilometres west-north-west of Shanghai.

It is recognised as one of the four Great Ancient Capitals of China – alongside Beijing, Luoyang and Xi-an – and was one of the nation’s most important cities for more than a century.

Nanjing hosted the 2014 Summer Youth Olympic Games.

How to follow

We’ve shared some useful information on how to follow on our World Indoor Championship page, including a timetable of when Irish athletes are competing and details of how to watch.

Because China is eight hours ahead of Ireland, the morning sessions will be in the very small hours, while the evening sessions will be late morning/lunchtime our time. The field events - all straight finals - are spread across morning and evening sessions, so fans of the jumps and throws may wish to bank some extra hours sleep in the next few days.

It's been an epic six weeks tracking the route Irish athletes took to Apeldoorn. Some came into 2025 with the Auto Q already secured and many hit it in their first competition of the year. Others had plenty of ranking points, but needed the Athletics Ireland B standard to be selected. 

A few hung out around the quota cut-off for the past few weeks, knowing (or at least hoping) that there would be some withdrawals. And here we are with a team of 19. This is a summary of how each individual and team qualified for Apeldoorn.

Bori Akinola (60m) was sitting in or around the cut-off mark coming into the season, and once he nailed the Athletics Ireland B standard (6.65) at the National League on 19 Jan he was all but assured his place, given the number of athletes ahead of him on the Road to Apeldoorn who were unlikely to compete. Akinola’s silver medal at last summer’s National Seniors made up a big chunk of his final ranking score, along with his win from National Indoors and that 6.65 from the national league. Two rounds of the UCD Track and Field Meeting in June were enough to complete Akinola’s Apeldoorn-qualifying score.

Sharlene Mawdsley (400m): While her place by ranking was never in doubt coming into the season, Masdsley made things straightforward when she achieved the Auto Q in her first race of the season in Glasgow on 2 Feb. Her 51.69 that day was an indoor personal best, and her fastest time of the season so far.

Lauren Cadden and Rachel McCann (both 400m) were selected for relay teams in Apeldoorn and therefore did not need to hit the Athletics Ireland B standard. They took the final two slots on the Road to Apeldoorn (Cliodhna Manning and Arlene Crossan were next in line for a place). Like Akinola, both Cadden and Manning benefited from the podium finishes at last summer’s National Senior Championships and the placing points that it, as a Category B event, carried. But most importantly, they had enough outdoor performances (at least 3) to have a ranking score. Both will be making their senior individual debut in Apeldoorn.

Mark English (800m), a regular in high-scoring races, rarely struggles to gather ranking points. He was already sitting pretty on 1240 points when he ran the Auto Q (and smashed the Irish record in the process), at the Millrose Games on 8 February. English, a two-time medal-winner at this event, goes into Apeldoorn ranked third of the field on season’s best.

Cian McPhillips (800m) looked to have a mountain to climb when sitting in 48th place. But then, seemingly out of nowhere, he ran 1:45.33 – an outright PB, second on the Irish all-time list, and most importantly the Auto Q for Apeldoorn. McPhillips is ranked fifth by season’s best among the field.

Cathal Doyle (1500m) seems to love just missing Auto Qs, and the Road to Apeldoorn has been no different; the 3:37.00 standard just alluding him on this occasion. He did, however, achieve the B standard on 7 Feb and thanks to three Category A top 4 finishes, a swift Olympic semi-final result, and another fast category C podium finish, Doyle amassed a massive ranking score of 1289 points. That’s almost 200 points more than was needed to make it on quota.

Sarah Healy (3000m): Because she had raced no 5000m races outdoors last season, Sarah always needed the Automatic qualification standard of 8:48.00. She achieved that in Boston in her first race of the season where she broke the Irish record, and improved it a week later in New York. Her time then - 8:30.79 – ranks her second by time among the Apeldoorn field. Sarah did also achieve the Auto Q for the 1500m, but has opted for the longer distance in Apeldoorn.

Jodie McCann (5000m): Having chased ranking points for the 5000m in Paris last summer, Jodie had a good chance of making Apeldoorn on ranking, so long as she achieved the Athletics Ireland B standard. She achieved that on 4 Feb, and while sitting in the last of the 24 slots the week before the window closed, she was well within the quota once withdrawals were made. McCann’s final ranking was made up of the same three performances that got her to the Olympics.

Andrew Coscoran (3000m), like Healy, needed the Auto Q, and that he delivered in his first outing of the season, with an impressive win and national record-shattering 7:30.75 in Boston. The following week Coscoran broke the Irish 1500m and mile records, but, like Healy, has chosen the longer distance in Apeldoorn. He is ranked third in the field on time.

James Gormley (3000m): A former British junior international, the first step for James was to gain his Irish eligibility, which happened in November last year. James hit the Auto Q in Boston on 14th February to secure his place.

Sarah Lavin (60m hurdles): has been making a habit of getting qualification out of the way early, and she achieved the required standard (8.00 seconds) at the World Indoors in Glasgow last March, within the first week of qualification for this event.

Kate O’Connor (Hepathlon) surpassed the Athletics Ireland B standard for Apeldoorn with her best heptathlon performance last summer, and she came into the indoor season sitting just inside the quota spots. Her 4683 national record on 2 February, however, bettered the Auto Q.  She is one of only three of the field to do so this season.

The Mixed 4x400m and Women's 4x400m relay teams both qualified by time, thanks to their Rome and Paris performances respectively. Netherlands, as hosts, were guaranteed a slot in each relay, the next three teams were decided based on 2024 toplist, and the final two slots in the 6-team finals were allocated based on cumulative times of a country’s best 4 performers this indoor season.

Orla Comerford (PA 60m) will also compete in Apeldoorn, European Athletics having added two Para Athletics events to the programme.

If it feels like there’s been non-stop championship action year after year since Covid, that’s because there has been. And it’s not due to end just yet: 2025 will be the fifth consecutive year with a global senior outdoor track and field championship.

Indeed we’re still experiencing the knock-on effects of earlier Covid-related postponements, with both European and World Indoor Championships set for March.

Here’s a summary of the significant international athletics events scheduled for 2025, the majority of which will feature Irish athletes.

European Indoor Championships, Apeldoorn, NED, 6-9 Mar

The Dutch city of Apeldoorn will play host to the sold-out European Indoor Championships over four days in early March. Athletes will qualify by qualification standard or world ranking. Nine Irish athletes have already achieved automatic qualification standards. Both the Women’s 4x400m and the Mixed 4x400m relay teams are also qualifed, with the latter making its European Indoor debut in 2025.

It’s been six years since Mark English (800m) and Ciara Mageean (1500m) won Ireland’s last European Indoor medals. Ireland’s best result last time out was Darragh McElhinney’s fourth place in the 3000m. Phil Healy finished fourth in the 400m in 2021.

It’s not clear yet who’ll be racing indoors, how many members of the giant-slaying relay teams will be available or who has wintered particularly well, but it’s difficult to see Ireland going a third consecutive European Indoor championship without a medal.

Event website
Athletics Ireland selection policy
Qualification status of Irish athletes

European Throwing Cup, Nicosia, CYP, 15-16 Mar

The indoor season won’t even have concluded by the time the top throwers open their 2025 campaigns. A little bit of Mediterranean sun will help break up the winter training for those lucky enough to punch their ticket to the Cypriot capital.

Nicola Tuthill finished second in the U23 hammer at the past two editions, and may well be looking to go one better in her final year in the category, though she could instead opt to compete against the senior athletes. The ever-improving Oisin Joyce (Javelin) and Niamh Fogarty (Discus) are others who may be looking to make a mark at this level.

Event information
Athletics Ireland selection policy
Irish Athletes who have achieved consideration standards

World Indoor Championships, Nanjing, CHN, 21-13 Mar

Just two weeks after the European Indoors, the World Indoor Championships will be held in Nanjing, China. If you’re thinking it’s unusual to have two championships indoors, you’re not wrong, though it’s not completely unheard of.

China is a long way to go for an athlete early in what could be another long year. But an additional championship may offer a bonus opportunity for an athlete to get on an international rostrum, or to gain experience at this level. We will wait to see how many Irish athletes will make the trip. Rhasidat Adeleke, one of only two athletes currently qualified, has already stated that she'll be skipping both the European and World Indoors this year.

Event website
Athletics Ireland selection policy
Qualification status of Irish athletes

European Running Championships, Brussels-Leuven, BEL, 12-13 Apr

The European Running Championships, which will feature 10km, marathon and half marathon championship races, is making its debut this year. The event is being billed as a festival of running, and athletes of all levels can enter to compete alongside the elite athletes.

The 10km and half marathon will be run around the streets of Leuven. The marathon will start by the Royal Palace in the centre of Brussels, and make its way east, via Tervuren Park and the Royal Museum of Central Africa, to Leuven. The half marathon will be held on Saturday 12th April, while both the 10km and marathon races will take place the following day.

The marathon championship replaces the one traditionally held with the European Championships in non-Olympic years (last held in Munich in 2022), while the half-marathon was contested alongside the European Championships in 2016 (Amsterdam) and 2014 (Rome). This will be the first time that European championship medals will be awarded for 10km on the road.

Fionnuala McCormack finished seventh in the marathon in Munich, while Shona Heaslip in 34th was Ireland’s top half-marathoner in Rome last year.

Event website
Athletics Ireland selection policy
Irish athletes who have achieved consideration standards

World Relays, Guangzhou, CHN,10-11 May

Last year the best teams were fielded in the first round of both the Women’s 4x400m and Mixed 4x400m. With Olympic qualification secured in both events, all the eggs were then placed in the mixed relay basket for the final, and the team set a (then) national record and won bronze.

Both those teams are ranked high enough to be guaranteed a spot in Guangzhou, but Ideally, the Men's 4x400m team would also qualify (they finished 2024 ranked 30th on the Road to Guangzhou, so they might just be one of the 32 teams invited). The men’s 4x100m team, currently ranked 37th, would require some withdrawals to qualify.

Fourteen of the teams for the World Championships in Tokyo will be chosen from the World Relays, the other two spots will be allocated to the next two best teams on time during the qualification window.

The Irish Women’s 4x400m are currently ranked fourth, so if two of the teams ahead compete in Guangzhou and finish top fourteen, then they’ll qualify regardless (presuming that teams are not going to run faster than the time Ireland did in the Olympic final between now and close of the Tokyo window). If the Netherlands, USA and Great Britain choose to skip World Relays, Ireland have a chance of finishing top 14 in Guangzhou without their strongest team.

The Mixed 4x400m team are currently ranked 5th. In theory, they could also qualify for Tokyo irrespective of their Guangzhou performance, but that would depend on at least three of the United States, Netherlands, Great Britain and Belgium taking automatic spots, and nobody else running faster than the 3:09.92 the Irish quartet ran on their way to the European title.

Event info
Athletics Ireland selection policy

European Race Walking Team Championships, Poděbrady, CZE, 18 May

After hosting the 2021 and 2023 editions of this biannual event, Lázeňský Park in Poděbrady will again host the European Race Walking Team Championships. The event, established in 1996, now includes senior men's and women's 20km and 35km races, and 10km races for U20 men and women.

The event provides individuals with a good opportunity to obtain qualification standards for the summer’s major events. Those finishing in the top 8 in the senior events also receive bonus placing points towards world ranking scores.

The team scores in the senior races are calculated by aggregating the positions of the first three finishers. The top two athletes per country count in the U20 team event. The Irish senior men’s 20km team (Alex Wright, Robert Heffernan and Cian McManamon) won bronze at this event in 2017.

Event website
Athletics Ireland selection policy
Irish athletes who have achieved consideration standards

European 10,000m Cup, Pacé, FRA, 24 May

Similar to Poděbrady for the Race Walking Team Championships, Pacé in France will host the European 10,000m Cup for the third time, though the last edition was actually held alongside the European Championships in Rome last summer.

There will be A and B races in both men’s and women’s categories, with athletes seeded according to prior accomplishments. The addition of pacemakers allows athletes to avail of a rare opportunity to chase personal bests and championship qualification standards while surrounded by athletes of a similar ability.

A full Irish team competed in the men’s race in Rome last year, while Íde Nic Dhomhnaill and Shona Heaslip finished first and second respectively in the women’s B race in Pacé in 2023.

Event website
Athletics Ireland selection policy
Irish athletes who have achieved consideration standards

European Team Championships, Maribor, SLO, 24-29 Jun

After a stunning team performance in the lowest division two years ago, Ireland are back where they belong in the second division of Europe’s international team competition. A lack of field event power has historically made it impossible to challenge for a place in the top division but, with growth there, 2025 will give some indication of whether or not further promotion is possible for the current generation.

The target, however, this year must surely be to solidify their place, and for athletes – particularly those in the field events – to gain experience at this level. And if everyone shows up, who knows, maybe we could all be surprised.

Ireland’s opposition in Slovenia will include the hosts Slovenia, Austria and Israel who were promoted with Ireland in 2023, Belgium, Turkey and Norway, who were relegated from the top division last time, along with Romania, Denmark, Serbia, Slovakia, Croatia, Estonia, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Latvia.

Event information
Athletics Ireland selection policy

European U23 Championships, Bergen, NOR, 17-20 Jul

Nicola Tuthill, Nick Griggs, Elizabeth Ndudi and Oisin Joyce are just some of the Irish athletes who’ll be eligible to compete at the 15th edition of the European U23 championships in Norway in July.

Tuthill finished 4th in 2023, and has improved her best by almost two-an-a-half metres, made a European Senior final, and competed in the Olympics since then. Griggs and Ndudi both European U20 champions, and Joyce, a World U20 medallist, will also be looking for medals, should they choose to compete.

Irish athletes have had much success at European U23 Championships in recent years. Sophie O'Sullivan, Sarah Healy, David Kenny, Eilish Flanagan and Nadia Power have all won medals since 2019; of those, only Healy had won won a European medal at U20 level.

Event website

FISU World University Games Summer, Rhine-Ruhr, GER, 21-27 Jul, 2025

It’s not clear yet if Ireland will send a team to the biannual, multi-sport event for students. The athletics programme, which will be held in Lohrheidestadion in Bochum, starts the day after the European U23 championships conclude in Bergen.

European U23 Championships will likely be the priority for those who are eligible for both, but athletes like Nicola Tuthill could easily compete in Norway and Germany. Others, for example Sophie O’Sullivan and Jack Raftery, would be eligible for World Universities but not European U23s.

Ireland didn’t send a team to the last edition in Chengdu. Marcus Lawler won 200m bronze six years ago, while Thomas Barr won the 400m hurdles in 2015. Ronnie Delany (1961), Sonia O’Sullivan (1991) and Derval O’Rourke (2005) are also among previous medal winners.

Event website

European U20 Championships, Tampere, FIN, 7-10 Aug

While senior athletics is very much our focus here, it’s difficult to ignore the main under-20 competition of the year. The European U20 Championships is always a good chance to watch some of the up-and-coming talent. The athletes always look like they’re having fun, and with all events shown live and for free on the Eurovision Sport site, it’s an easy event to follow.

Elizabeth Ndudi (gold LJ) and Nick Griggs (silver 3000m) made the podium in 2023. Indeed, 10 Irish athletes have earned 12 medals at European U20 level since 2017. Of those athletes, Griggs, Kate O’Connor, Sarah Healy, Darragh McElhinney and Rhasidat Adeleke have since gone on to compete in global senior championships, with John Fitzsimons also competing at European Senior level.

Irish athletes won five medals at the European U18 Championships in 2023, and some of the athletes who competed at World U20 Championships last year are still eligible, so there’ll be no shortage of talent this time either.

Event information

World Championships, Tokyo, JPN, 13-21 Sep

While there will be plenty to keep the keen athletics fan entertained all summer, they’ll have to wait until September for the ‘big dance.’

Over nine days, the world’s best athletes will compete in the Japanese capital for 49 World titles. Ireland’s last World Championship medal came in 2013 (Rob Heffernan, Gold, 50km walk), and only five Irish athletes have ever won medals at this level. With four near misses in the last two global majors, surely the Irish are due a bit of luck.

Event website
Athletics Ireland selection policy
Qualification status of Irish athletes

World Road Running Championships, San Diego, USA, 26-28 Sep

While this event may not feature an Irish team, all three Championship events (mile, 5km and half marathon) will be run alongside mass participation events, so anyone can enter.

This will be the first time either the World Half Marathon Championships, or the now-expanded World Road Running Championships, will be hosted by the USA. No Irish athlete has ever won a medal at this event.

Event website

European Cross Country Championships, Lagoa, POR, 14 Dec

After the long trip to Asia for last year’s event, Europe’s premier Cross Country event returns to the Western extremity of mainland Europe, and the Algarve town of Lagoa.

Ireland had a breakthrough performance the last time the event was held in Portugal (Lisbon, 2019), when Efrem Gidey (U20) and Stephanie Cotter (U23) won individual bronze medals and both the U23 and senior women’s teams won silver.

In the four editions since then, Darragh McElhinney (U23 silver, 2021), Nick Griggs (U20 silver, 2022; U20 bronze, 2023; U23 silver 2024) and Dean Casey (U20 bronze, 2023) have added individual medals. The U20 men, U23 men and senior women have also earned six sets of team medals between them.

It’s a long way until December and predicting who’ll be competing and challenging for medals is near impossible, but one thing we can be assured of is a big and vocal travelling group of Irish supporters.

The 38th European Indoor Athletics Championships will be held in the Dutch city of Apeldoorn between 6 and 9 March 2025. After missing out on medals in 2021 (Phil Healy finished fourth in the 400m) and 2023 (Darragh McElhinney was fourth in the 3000m), Irish athletes will be hoping for some silverware.

But first, they must qualify. At the time of writing, two relay teams (Women’s 4x400m and Mixed 4x400m) and six individuals have achieved the required entry standards, though some of the latter do not have Apeldoorn in their plans for 2025.

Athletes have until 23rd February, the weekend of the National Senior Indoor Championships, to achieve the entry standard set by European Athletics, or to gain enough ranking points to be within the required quota AND achieve the Athletics Ireland B standard.

Current status of Irish Athletes on Road to Apeldoorn

The mixed relay is making its indoor debut this year, and the Irish have qualified for both that and the women’s relay by virtue of their position on the World top list at the end of 2024. The Men’s 4x400m has the opportunity to join them, but the Irish men will need some swift individual performances by the 23rd February cut-off.

Netherlands, Great Britain, Belgium and France have already secured their place and the remaining two spots will be allocated based on the best cumulative times of a nation’s four fastest athletes during the 2025 indoor season.

Sarah Healy, Sophie O’Sullivan (both 1500m), Brian Fay (3000m) and Sarah Lavin (100m hurdles) ran fast enough outdoors last season to qualify, and, should they choose to compete, will be looking for top eight finishes (or higher).

Rhasidat Adeleke has already said that she will skip both European and World indoors this season, and Ciara Mageean, who has achieved the qualification standard for both the 800m and 1500m is recovering from recent surgery on the injury that kept her out of Paris.

Kate O’Connor (Pentathlon) is the only athlete in quota who currently has the Athletics Ireland B standard. Others within the quota cut-off at the start of the season are Israel Olatunde (60m), Sharlene Mawdsley, Sophie Becker (both 400m), Mark English (800m), Cathal Doyle, Andrew Coscoran (both 1500m) and Jodie McCann (3000m).

Luke McCann (1500m) is also ranked within quota though he has announced that he won’t be competing in 2025 due to injury.

The complexity of ranking points

Approximately half the quota spots in each event will be allocated based on World Rankings. World rankings are based on outdoor performances, even when used for qualification for indoor events, and while two (or one for 3000m) indoor or associated-distance performances can count, athletes need at least some outdoor results to have a ranking.

Nick Griggs is currently a few spots outside the quota for 1500m, and just missed the outdoor standard for the 3000m. He’ll hope to qualify for at least one event, though if he’s to do it in the longer distance, he’ll need to hit the 7:43.00 Auto Q or find an outdoor 5000m race (or an indoor 5000m on a 400m track) to qualify by ranking.

Track athletes who missed last year’s outdoor season therefore only have the Auto Q route to qualification. Same too for 400m hurdlers looking to race 400m indoors. Field eventers can qualify by virtue of their five best-scoring performance, irrespective of how many of these were achieved indoors.

Because Auto Qs can be achieved outdoors, athletes who never race indoors, are currently injured, or retired post-Paris, may well be sitting within quota spots – by qualification or ranking – at the end of the qualification period. Irish athletes interested in competing in Apeldoorn will be hoping to benefit from subsequent withdrawals by such athletes.

But first, they need to hit the Athletics Ireland B standards. And while there’s still much to play for, particularly in terms of Auto Qs, much of the heavy lifting is already done in terms of gathering world ranking points.

We’ll keep you informed of when Irish athletes hit Auto Q standards and Athletics Ireland B standards, and bring you regular ranking updates after the Road to Apeldoorn is updated each week on our European Indoors information page.

Some other useful information

The Irish team will be announced after final selections have been made on 25th February.

If you’re looking to support the Irish athletes in person, you’re probably too late. Tickets for all the evening sessions sold out early, though there are limited moving morning session available for Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 March.

We’ll publish all the information you need to follow the event – including an Irish-specific timetable, links to startlists and live results, and details of where to watch the event – closer to the time.

Irish athletes will be aiming for their first European Indoor medal in six years, and we don’t want you to miss any of the action.