Siún Quinn

The opening Diamond League of the season in Shanghai, a Continental Tour Gold meeting in Tokyo, some Continental Tour Challenger meetings in Europe and a host of NCAA Division I Conference Championships, are just some of the events abroad with Irish interest this weekend.

Closer to home, the National 5km Championships will be decided in the Phoenix Park on Saturday, while the sprinters and field eventers will look for confidence-boosting performances at the May T&F Open in Tullamore on Sunday.

A handful of athletes will also be competing at events in the UK, including the British Milers Club meeting in Trafford, the Loughborough International, and the BFTTA sprint meeting in London.

2026 Diamond League kicks off in China

Though still early in season, the Shanghai/Keqiao Diamond League startlist boasts a number of top international stars, including Mondo Duplantis, Faith Kipyegon, Karsten Warholm and Jess Hull.

On the Men’s 800m startlist is Mark English, who will be opening his outdoor season. Mark had a good indoor campaign, improving both his Irish 600m and 800m indoor records, though not making the World Indoor final will have been a disappointment for English and his fans.

English has already secured the qualification standards for this summer’s European Championships and may well have an eye on Cian McPhillips’s outdoor record (1:42.15) as he builds towards this summer’s biggest event.

The event will be shown live on Virgin Media Two from 12 noon to 2pm on Saturday.

Continental Tour Gold

Staying in East Aisa, the Continental Tour Gold meeting in Tokyo features several Irish athletes with Sophie Becker (400m), Sophie O’Sullivan (1500m), Brian Fay and Laura Nicholson (both 3000m) all on the startlist at the time of writing.

Fay started 2026 with 16th place at the World Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee. After finishing 3rd in the 3000m at the Continental Tour Gold meeting in Melbourne at the end of March, he got in some speedwork over 1500m in Hiroshima two weeks ago, and ran 13:13.30 to win over 5000m at the Golden Games in Nobeoka on 4th May.

Nicholson, too, has been busy, with races in New Zealand, Australia and Japan, over a variety of distances, already this year. She knocked more than two seconds off her 800m PB in her most recent outing, and is the only Irish athlete to have run under 9 minutes for the 3000m, indoors or out, so far in 2026. She’ll be hoping to improve on the 8:59.74 PB she ran in Hobart at the end of February.

Becker opened her outdoor campaign by helping the Irish women’s 4x400m relay team qualify for the 2027 World Championships, before recording 52.36 at the Belfast Classic last Saturday. The 51.20 qualification standard for Birmingham will be within her sights in the coming weeks, though she’s likely to qualify by ranking without it.

O’Sullivan has races just once in 2026, a 1500m at the Melbourne meeting, but with the European standard already secured, she has plenty of time to return to full fitness for Birmingham in August.

Other Continental Tour meetings

Nicola Tuthill (Hammer) is among the senior entries for the two-day Halplus Werfertage throws meeting (Continental Tour Bronze) in Germany. Anna Gavigan is on the U23 Discus startlist, while Theo Hanlon is entered in U20 shot put.

Jack Raftery and Sean Doggett, who both raced as part of the mixed relay team at the World Relays in Botswana earlier this month, are due to compete at Meeting de Atlismo Toni Bonet (Continental Tour Challenger) in Ibiza on Saturday. Doggett had a breakthrough indoor season, running 46.99 and winning the national indoor title. Raftery raced at Belfast last weekend, where he ran 46.18.

Andrew Thompson is scheduled to race at the British Milers Club meeting in Trafford, Manchester (Continental Tour Challenger) on Saturday. Thompson, who ran 1:47.08 in Belfast last Saturday, has a personal best of 1:46.77 from 2025.

Domestic action

Matthew Callinan Keenan (Pole Vault), Sophie Meredith (Long Jump), Michaela Walsh (Shot Put), Conor Cusack and Grace Casey (Javelin) and Michael Healy (Discus) are among the field eventers entered for the National May T&F Open.

Among the men’s 400m hurdlers entries are Ethan Dewhirst and Fintan Dewhirst who have both started the season well. The former smashed his personal best and achieved a World U20 standard in April, while the latter was an impressive winner of the Intervarsity title before travelling to Botswana as part of the Irish mixed relay squad at the World Relays.

The women’s 400m hurdles race also has much strength in depth, with EYOF medallist Ellis McHugh among the entries. Saoirse Fitzgerald, who will step down to the 400m after achieving the World U20 standard over 800m earlier this month.

National senior and master champions will be crowned at the IrishRunner 5km in the Phoenix Park on Saturday. Preliminary entries suggest this could be a very competitive event.

Action in the UK

Daena Kealy (High Jump), Lauren Callaghan (Long Jump), Lucy McGlynn (400m Hurdles) and para-athlete Lana Sutton (ambulant 100m and 200m) are among the entries for the Loughborough International, while sprinters Colin Costelloe and Adam Murphy are entered for the 100m and 200m at the BFTTA Series 3 meeting in London on Sunday. It was in the final meeting of this series last year that Israel Olatunde set the current Irish 100m record of 10.08.

NCAA Division I Conference Championships

All the biggest NCAA Div I Conferences have their championships over the coming days, with dozens of Irish athletes set to compete. While not all athletes entered will take part, we should expect to see the majority of the Irish who have been ripping up the record books competing across the next few days.

Some of the standout performers so far this year have been Maeve O’Neill, who set a new Irish Indoor 800m record earlier in the year before making the semi-final of the World Indoor Championships, the new Irish 200m record holder Sean Aigboboh and Lauren Roy, who went number 2 all-time over both 60m (7.19) and 200m (22.89) during her indoor season.

Roy followed up her fine indoor season, which, like O’Neill, included a trip to the World Indoors in March, with a wind-aided 11.08 (+2.8) 100m. She has yet to secure a consideration standard for this summer’s Commonwealth Games, and will likely target those standards (11.30 for 100m and 23.15 for 200m) in the coming weeks.

Aigboboh, part of the record-breaking Irish 4x100m relay team last summer, could compete both with the relay and as an individual in Birmingham, having secured the qualification standard over 100m, and looking likely to be within quota over 200m.

Elizabeth Ndudi, the indoor and outdoor long-jump record holder, has had a mixed season so far, jumping 6.63, a new indoor mark, in her second competition of the year. Conference and Regional championships will provide an opportunity for her to bring that form outdoors.

Diarmuid O’Connor is another NCAA-based athlete to have broken a national senior record this year, as he twice added points to his own Indoor Heptathlon mark. O’Connor remains in third place on the Irish all-time list for the Decathlon, and will surely be looking to chase down Carlos O’Connell’s 38-year-old national record in upcoming competitions.

Siún Quinn, still an U20, last week added 5 centimetres to her high jump personal best, and will look to build on that over the remainder of the NCAA season ahead of the World U20 Championships in Eugene in July.

Seán Donoghue, now a three-time Penn Relay winner, Leevale pair Lucy-May Sleeman and Nicole Dinan, and distance runners Dean Casey and Anika Thompson are just some of the other athletes to watch out for in coming weeks, as are Roisin Treacy (3000m Steeplechase), Nathan Cremin (800m) and Heather Murphy (5000m, 10,000m), who have already won medals at their respective NCAA and NAIA Conference Championships.

You'll find a breakdown of which athletes to expect to see at each of the championships on the TrackAthletes NCAA Div I Conference page, where you'll also find links to live results and streams (where available).

The World Relays will take centre stage this weekend as teams from around the world descend on the Botswanan capital, Gaborone, in search of spots at September’s Ultimate Championships and the 2027 World Championships.

Two weeks out from the majority of NCAA Div I conference championships, dozens of Irish student-athletes will compete in collegiate meetings across the USA. Closer to home, Irish athletes studying at British universities will contest the BUCS Championships, the main event of their student calendar.

Laura Nicholson will race over 800m in Japan, while Rhasidat Adeleke could open her outdoor season in Austin.

The Irish Milers Club Clonmel meeting and the first Dublin Graded meeting take place on Saturday while attention will turn to the roads on Sunday with the Belfast City Marathon, the Dublin Half Marathon and the Great Limerick Run all taking place.

World Relays

Twelve of the sixteen places at next year’s World Championships will be allocated based on finishing positions at the World Relays. The top six teams in the mixed 4x400m and the mixed 4x100m will also qualify for the Ultimate Championships in September.

Ireland will be represented in the women’s 4x100m, the women’s 4x400m and the mixed 4x400m in Gaborone, and while none of the teams are quite at top strength, all three will endeavour to qualify for Beijing next year.

Qualification for this summer’s European Championships is based purely on accumulated times for the best two performances during the qualification window, but a fast time here may help improve the plight of one or more of the teams.

Currently, Irish relay teams sit in qualification spots in five of the six relay events for Birmingham, with the Men’s 4x100m (9th), the Women’s 4x400m (10th), the Men’s 4x400m (11th) and the Women’s 4x100m (12th) all well positioned, with 16 places available.

Qualification, however, is far from secured for the Mixed 4x400m team, ranked eighth with just eight spots available. A time faster than the 3:13.59 they achieved at the World Championship heats in Tokyo would increase the team’s chances of being on the startline to defend their title in Birmingham.

World Relays has been a successful meeting for Irish relay teams in recent years, with both the women’s 4x400m and mixed 4x400m teams qualifying for major championships at the past two editions.

The mixed 4x400m picked up a medal in 2024, and the now-discontinued women’s 4x200m team made the podium in 2021. The women’s 4x100m team qualified via the 2021 edition for the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, their last appearance at a major championship.

US Meetings

Among the entries for the Texas Invitational in Austin on Thursday and Friday is multiple Irish record holder Rhasidat Adeleke. The Dublin woman, who is due to race the 400m at the Shanghai Diamond League on 16th May is entered in both the 100m and 200m. Conor Kelly (400m) and Victoria Amiadamen (400m Hurdles) are also on the entry list for the Austin event.

The LSU Invitational in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has Continental Tour Challenger status, and among the athletes looking for fast times there will be Lucy-May Sleeman. The startlists are not available at the time of writing, so it’s likely that other Irish athletes will also be racing there.

The ever-improving Sean Aigboboh is entered for both the 100m and 200m at the Cameron Burrell Alumni Invitational in Houston. The Tallaght AC athlete holds the Athletics Ireland B standard for Birmingham at both distances.

The Duke Twilight startlist includes the ever-improving Nathan Cremin (1500m) and Liam Lyons (800m and 1500m), Kate Joyce (Javelin Throw), who recently transferred allegiance to Ireland from the USA, and Heather Murphy (5000m).

Siún Quinn and Elizabeth Ndudi (Gary Wieneke Memorial), Maddie Mooney, Mark Milner (Oregon State High Performance); David Davitt, Grace Weigele and Jack Fenlon (Larry Ellis Invitational) are among the other athletes appearing on startlists for events across the USA this weekend. A small number will also compete in conference championships.

See the TrackAthletes NCAA/Collegiate page for other athletes and startlists not available at the time of writing.

Action in Japan

Laura Nicholson won the 1500m at the Oda Mikio Memorial, a continental tour bronze meeting, in Hiroshima on Wednesday, where Brian Fay placed 3rd in the men’s 1500m. She will race over 800m at the Shizuoka International Athletics Meet, another bronze event, in Fukuroi on Sunday.

Irish events

Some of the rising middle-distance athletes who have recently had their profiles added to TrackAthletes, including Pia Langton and Saoirse Fitzgerald, are among the entries for the first Irish Milers Club meeting of the year in Clonmel on Saturday. The opening Dublin graded meeting will also take place at Morton Stadium on Saturday.

Ann-Marie McGlynn is among the entrants for the Belfast City Marathon, alongside a handful of international athletes and 15,000 other participants across the marathon and marathon relay. The race also incorporates the Northern Ireland and Ulster Championships.

Paul O’Donnell, Seán Tobin, John Travers, Hugh Armstrong, Nicola Sheridan and Sorcha Nic Dhomhnaill are among the entries for the Dublin City Half Marathon. Meanwhile, Shannon-side, the sold-out Great Limerick Run will feature races over the marathon, half-marathon and 6-mile distances.

British University Championships

A dozen or so Irish athletes will compete at the British University (BUCS) T&F Championships in Cardiff over the weekend. Two-time Irish Indoor Champion David Onwudiwe and Michael Alajiki, who represented Ireland at the European Team Championships in 2025, will be among the medal contenders in the men’s triple jump.

Niamh Malone and Lucy McGlynn are among the entries for the Women’s 400m Hurdles. Frank McGrath is listed for both the 1500m and 5000m.

Summer is coming. And the track season is about to heat up. This weekend is just a taster of what's to come. Check out the Quick Updates for significant and breakthrough performances across the weekend.