Quick Updates

There are lots of college meets and other events with Irish athletes competing this weekend; so many, in fact, that they don't all appear on our homepage list. Go to the Calendar page for the full list.

Sarah Leahy bettered the Irish 50m record with 6.41 at Meeting Indoor Locarnese in Switzerland this evening. She won the event ahead of Orla Comerford, who recorded 6.47.

Mark English just ran 1:15.80 for 600m at the NIA Track & Field Live, which betters his Irish Indoor record from 2024, and is just outside his outright record of 1:15.71 from 2015. Cian McPhillips races the same distance at the New Balance Grand Prix in Boston next week (24th). English will race 800m the same day in Lyon.

Peter Lynch had been due to race the Houston Half Marathon this morning, but withdrew due to a niggle.

Irish and Northern Irish records, a Euro Champs Auto Q, several Athletics Ireland Euro Champs B standards and Athletics Ireland consideration standards for Irish athletes in Valencia this morning (all gun rather than chip times):
Efrem Gidey 27:38 NR
Jack O'Leary 27:41 Euro Auto Q
Cormac Dalton 28:03 Euro B std
Callum Morgan 28:08 NIR
Jamie Battle 28:54 Euro Cup std
Michael Murphy 29:00 Euro Cup std
Sorcha Nic Dhomhnaill 32:24 Euro Cup std
Ava Crean 32:46 Euro Cup Std
Faye Dervan 33:31 Euro Cup std
Ella Fennelly 33:39 Euro Cup std
Sorcha and Ava were faster than the Athletics Ireland B standard for Birmingham, but it's unlikely that those times will count as were set in a mixed race. Because  there were so many elite athletes in the race, a number of these will have run a faster chip time than the times listed above.

Looks like Irish 10km record for Efrem Gidey, European standard for Jack O'Leary, European B standard for Cormac Dalton and Northern Irish record for Callum Morgan in Valencia. We'll update when results are available later.

The Valencia 10km is the first of today's action. National Record holder Efrem Gidey, Jack O'Leary, Cormac Dalton and Callum Morgan are among the Irish looking for fast times in what is probably the best road 10km in the world. The event will be shown on the European Athletics Youtube channel. Among the targets for the Irish lads will be the national record (27:43) and the European 10,000m standard (27:50; Gidey already has the standard). We've started to update our Road to Birmingham page with athletes who are within ranking and have the Athletics Ireland B standards. It's likely that places in the men's endurance events will be fierce (we'll update the rest of the list over the next 48 hours).

In probably his best run since setting the Irish 5000m record a couple of years ago (or maybe ever), Brian Fay finished 16th in the Senior Men's race at the World Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee. The only Europeans ahead of him were reigning Euro Cross Champion Thierry Ndikumwenayo (8th), 2023 European Cross Country Champion Yann Schrub (11th) and World 10,000m Champion Jimmy Gressier who just pipped Fay on the line.

The Ugandan stranglehold on the senior men's title continues as Jacob Kiplimo adds a third consecutive senior men's title. Berihu Aregawi finishes 2nd yet again, and Kenya's Daniel Ebenyo took bronze. Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia took the team medals. Spain were fourth.

Further improvement for Brian Fay; he's up to 22nd through 7km and chasing down the World 10,000m champion.

Brian Fay is up to 31st through the halfway mark in Tallahassee.

Brian Fay is 39th through 2km in the final event - the Senior Men's race - in Tallahassee.

Fabulous runs by Niamh Allen (21st) and Fiona Everard (23rd) in the Senior Women's race in Talahassee. 

Agnes Ngetich (Kenya) won the title as Joy Cheptoyek won Uganda's first ever individual medal in this race, ahead of Senayet Getachew of Ethiopia. Ethiopia, Kenya and Ugand won the team medals.

Allen in 29th and Everard in 31st through 6km.

Niamh Allen is up to 30th and Fiona Everard up to 33rd through 4km!

Niamh Allen is 33rd and Fiona Everard 38th through the first lap in Tallahassee; just the 8km to go!

38th place for Noah Harris in the U20 men's race as Kenya fill the top 4 spots and take the team title with the perfect score of 10. Harris stuck with the leaders for a long way, and was inside the top 20 with a lap to go, but struggled over the final stages.

Noah Harris is just at the back of the lead group through 3km in the U20 men's race. Race live now on Virgin Media Two and Virgin Media Player.

Marta Alemayo (Ethiopia) retained her U20 Women's title, ahead of compatriot Wosane Asefa and Uganda's Charity Cherop. Uganda won the team title ahead of Kenya on countback. Despite having 1st, 2nd and 5th place, Ethiopia were unable to field a full team due to visa issues. This is Uganda's first team title in the U20 women's race. Every previous edition had been won by Kenya and Ethiopia.

Congrats to our colleagues over at Trackathletes.au, as Australia win the first title of the day - the mixed relay - in Tallahassee, ahead of France and Ethiopia. It's Australia's first World Cross Country title since Benita Willis (Johnson) won the Senior Women's title in 2004. You can read more about Australia's history at World Cross here.

The World Cross Country Championships are just about to get underway with the mixed relay. The Eurovision Sport stream has just started, and the three races with Irish interest will be on Virgin Media Two from 3:50pm.

We've added links to some other previews, course guides and general commentaries to our World Cross Country Championship Page. Schedule: 14:45: Mixed Relay; 15:20: U20 Women; 15:55: U20 Men; 16:35: Senior Women; 17:20: Senior Men

We've highlighted here some of the athletes to look out for at tomorrow's World Cross Country Championship in Tallahassee.