Efrem Gidey (Clonliffe Harriers AC) and Oisín Ó Gailín (Finn Valley AC) travel to the small French town of Pacé in Brittany this weekend for the European 10,000m Cup which takes place on Saturday (May 24th).
The event returns as a standalone one this year, after last year’s European 10,000m Cup was held in conjunction with the European Athletics Championships in Rome.
Having narrowly missed out on a medal in the half marathon at the inaugural European Running Championships in Belgium last month, Gidey will go in search of silverware in the Men’s A race.
The 24-year-old has the fastest season’s best in the field this year having run 27:26.95 for the distance in California at the end of March. That performance saw Gidey take 13 seconds off Alistair Cragg’s national record that had stood since 2007.
Gidey has also clocked national records in the half marathon (1:00:51) and 10km (27:43) since last September and will hope to prolong his recent streak of excellent form on Saturday.
Eight other men in the field have broken 28 minutes in their careers but none other than Gidey amongst the 35 entries have done so this season.
Ó Gailín will earn his first Irish senior international vest when he takes to the track for his debut over 25 laps. The Donegal man has been in excellent early season form clocking a personal best of 13:41.69 for 5,000m last month in California.
The Men’s 10,000m B race gets underway at 7:05pm, with the A race scheduled for a 8:30pm start.
- European 10,000m Cup website HERE.
- Entries by season’s best are HERE.
- Team Selection HERE.
- Livestream available on the European Athletics YouTube channel HERE.
*Laura Mooney (Tullamore Harriers) had been initially selected but has since withdrawn.
