Ten of the top races with Irish athletes in 2025
Elizabeth Egan | Dec 29, 2025
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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