European Throwing Cup and NCAA Championships highlight this weekend's action
Elizabeth Egan | Mar 11, 2026
While the World Indoor Championships are still a week away, there’s plenty at stake for Irish athletes over the coming days, with the European Throwing Cup taking place in Cyprus and the NCAA Indoor Championships in the USA.
While last year's medal bonanza will be difficult to repeat in Nicosia, there is still plenty for the Irish throwers to play for, and while NCAA medals are also difficult to come by, three Irish athletes carry record-breaking form into the weekend's decider.
Meanwhile, six recently crowned National Senior Indoor Champions will be among those looking to add National U20 and U23 titles to their collections.
European Throwing Cup
The 2025 trip to Nicosia was a memorable one for Irish throwers, with three athletes making the podium. Nicola Tuthill earned her third consecutive medal in the U23 Hammer, upgrading from silver in 2023 and 2024 to win gold. Anna Gavigan threw a then PB of 53.91m to win silver in the U23 Discus, while 2024 World U20 medallist Oisin Joyce won bronze in the U23 Javelin.
Gavigan will compete again in the U23 Discus, and will look to at least match her performance from last year.
Tuthill went on to win silver at both the European U23 Championships and the World University Games before making the World Championship in Tokyo last year. She will seek to be competitive among Europe’s best senior hammer throwers here, in preparation for the European Championships in Birmingham this summer.
Niamh Fogarty broke the forty-year-old national discus record when she threw 58.40, in Oklahoma last April, and will look to improve on her 15th place from last year. Eric Favors, like Fogarty, is a regular on the Irish team for this event, and will be hoping for a big throw to set his outdoor campaign alight.
Conor Cusack made big strides in the Javelin last summer, ending the season with a PB of 75.42m. He will hope to carry that momentum into 2026, when he takes part in the senior Javelin competition for the first time.
Tuthill has already secured the qualification standard for the European Championships in Birmingham later this summer. Favors has surpassed the Athletics Ireland B standard, and is sitting well within the quota spots on ranking; indeed, his best is just 5cm short of the automatic qualification standard.
The respective Athletics Ireland B standards and the collection of ranking points will be at the forefront of Fogarty and Cussack’s minds in the coming months. Fogarty’s national record is better than the Athletics Ireland B standard of 57.80m, the minimum she would need to make her first major championships.
Cussack would need to improve to at least 79.00m to have any chance of making the cut-off for Birmingham, but given his improvement in the past 12 months, that is looking ever more possible.
NCAA battles
The startlists for the NCAA Division I Championships in Arkansas (Fayetteville) on Friday and Saturday will include five Irish athletes, including two who have also been selected for the World Indoor Championships next weekend.
Lauren Roy, who has been in scintillating form this season, will compete in the 60m and 200m. Roy has improved to 7.19 over 60m – the distance she will contest in Torun – this season and her 22.89 over 200m places her 2nd on the Irish all-time list, indoors and overall, behind Rhasidat Adeleke.
Maeve O’Neill has been another surprise package in early 2026, breaking the Irish Indoor 800m record last month and earning herself a spot at the World Indoors. She has improved her outright PB by 2.33 seconds this year and is ranked sixth on times this season heading into the weekend decider.
Elizabeth Ndudi is another to have set an Irish record this indoor season, when she added 1cm to Kelly Proper's 2010 mark. Ndudi is ranked fourth on 2026 performances, but with little to choose between the 16 contestants, this one could go down to the wire.
Abdel Laadjel had a fabulous run to finish top 10 at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in November, and he will be in the mix when the 5000m title is contested on Friday.
Seán Donoghue, a regular on successful Villanova middle-distance relay teams, is among the names listed for their Distance Medley Relay team this weekend.
The NCAA Division II and NCAA Division III championships will also be contested this weekend. Louis O’Loughlin (Mile), Ava O’Connor (Mile, 3000m) and Claragh Keane (5000m) will compete at the Division II event in Virginia Beach, VA, while Lucas Fadden (60m, 200m) is among the qualifiers for the Division III event in Birmingham, AL.
The NAIA Championships – the other division of collegiate competition in the US - took place last weekend. Nathan Cremin won gold in the 1000m (2:22.26) while Heather Murphy won silver in the 5000m (16:24.40).
U20 and U23 athletes compete for national titles
National senior champions Sean Doggett, Michael Kent, Adam Nolan, Emmanuel Osas, Meabh Corkery and Kotryna Pacerinskaite will be among those competing for age-group medals in Athlone on Saturday.
Doggett, who is the fastest Irish man over 400m in 2026 will race over 200m (U23), while Kent, the national Pole Vault champion, will compete in the U20 Long Jump. Osas will again contest the High Jump and Nolan the 60m Hurdles, both at U23 level, while Coakery will look to continue her steady improvement in the U20 Pole Vault. Pacerinskaite, the national Weight for Distance champion, is entered for both that and the Shot Put this weekend.
The U20 women’s middle-distance races look stacked with talent, and are likely to be closely-contested affairs, but there is a strong entry right across the programme, and an exciting day of action is guaranteed. See the Athletics Ireland website for a full preview.
Lynch on the roads of New York
Former Irish marathon record holder Peter Lynch will continue his preparations for next month’s London Marathon when he takes to the NYC Half startline on Sunday. This will be Lynch’s first serious test since finishing 24th at the World Championships in September.
Even with a potential six spots available, it’s likely that the competition for the Irish places in the men’s marathon in Birmingham will be hotly contested.
Fearghal Curtin and Paul O’Donnell have already secured the Automatic Qualification standard, and Ryan Creech, who just missed that standard in Seville last month, is comfortably within the quota spaces. Lynch, National Champion David McGlynn, Barry Keane and Hiko Tonosa, also have the Athletics Ireland B standard, the minimum needed for selection.
