Catherina McKiernan Announces Her Retirement

6 October 2004

Catherina McKiernan (34) has announced her retirement from competitive athletics, leaving a huge void in the sport  and indeed Irish sport in general.

It was in cross country that Catherina first achieved major acclaim. In retrospect her dominance of world cross country during the period 1992 to 1995 was astonishing. Over those four years she had consecutive victories in the IAAF Cross Country Challenge; four consecutive runner-up positions in the World Cross Country and was winner of the inaugural European Cross Country Championship.

Such was her dominance in cross country that it is often forgotten that Catherina was also a world class track runner. Catherina has personal best times of 14:49.40 for 5000 metres and 31:08.41 for 10,000 metres. The latter performance ranked her 3rd in the world in 1995. One abiding memory on the track was at the European Cup in the Morton Stadium in 1994 where she ran a virtually solo 10,000 metres to win in 31:19.11 which was the 4th fastest in the world that year.

When Catherina won the Berlin Marathon in 1997 in the fastest debut by a woman for the event in 2:23:44 and subsequently won the London and Amsterdam Marathons the following year she was elevated to iconic status. Her time of 2:22:23 in Amsterdam in seriously adverse conditions was staggering.

After an absence of a few years from the sport Catherina made a return to serious competition last year and had a fine victory in the national cross country Championships and also helped the Irish team to silver medals in the European Cross Country Championships.

We wish Catherina every good wish in her retirement and hope she continues to enjoy for many years to come that daily run!