Three Irish teams at World Relays and plenty of road and track action
Elizabeth Egan | Apr 30, 2026
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.
