Super sixth for men’s marathon team

Super sixth for men’s marathon team

The Irish men’s marathon team finished an excellent sixth at the European Athletics Championships in Berlin early this afternoon (August 12).

Kevin Seaward (St Malachy’s) came through well for a fine 15th place finish in 2:16:58 to lead the team home and continue his excellent championship form this year – this follows on from his fourth place finish in the Commonwealth Games marathon for Northern Ireland.

Mick Clohisey (Raheny Shamrock) was next home for the Irish in 18th in 2:18:00 having been the leading Irish athlete for much of the race.

Sean Hehir (Rathfarnham) who was 25th in 2:18:58 and Sergiu Ciobanu (Clonliffe Harriers) who was 36th in 2:19:49 worked together early on alongside Kevin Seaward.

Paul Pollock went off slower in a bid to try and come through but it didn’t work out on this occasion and he finished 47th 2:23:26. The men’s combined time was 6:53:55.

“I’m really happy with that today. I thought top ten, top 15 would be a good finish. I always try to perform to rank or better when going into a race and I knew with a sensible race today I could do that. Well done to all the lads on the team today. They battled really hard for a very respectable 6th place."

The women’s team were 8th led home by Lizzie Lee (Leevale) in 2:40:12 followed by Breege Connolly (North Belfast Harriers) in 31st in 2:41:53 and Gladys Ganiel (North Belfast Harriers) in 33rd in 2:42:42. Their combined time was 8:04:46.

Afterwards Lee said: “Position wise and time wise I was hoping for a bit better but if you had told me I was going to finish at mile 22 I would have bitten your hand off.”

Conditions got progressively hotter throughout the race which proved challenging for the runners as the temperature got hotter the further they went into the race.