Efrem Gidey took over three minutes off his personal best to clock an Irish half-marathon record of 1:00:51 in Copenhagen on Sunday morning, eclipsing the previous mark set by Martin Fagan in 2009.
The Copenhagen event attracted some of the best distance runners in the world, including Olympic 5,000m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen, and was won by Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe in 58:05, with the 24-year-old Gidey finishing in 15th position.
Fagan’s previous record of 1:00:57 was clocked in The Hague in 2009, two years before he tested positive for the banned substance EPO, although his record was left in the books.
In near ideal running conditions Gidey passed the first 5km in 14:16, and reached 10km in 28:43, his 1:00:51 breaking new ground on the road having concentrated on the track this summer, the Clonliffe Harriers runner racing the 10,000m at the European Championships in Rome in June.
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His previous half-marathon best was the 1:04:03 he clocked when finishing fifth in last year’s Great North Run in Newcastle.
After seeking asylum status in 2017, fleeing Eritrea, Gidey got Irish citizenship in 2019, shortly before he won bronze in the under-20 race at the European Cross-Country in Lisbon, that race won by Ingebrigtsen.
Ingebrigtsen laced up his racing flats in Copenhagen just two days after winning the 1,500m at the Diamond League final in Brussels, and although right in contention at the 10km marker in a fast 27:27, the Norwegian then stopped to walk on a few occasions before he finished 34th in 1:03:13.
Meanwhile Hugh Armstrong and Shona Heaslip were crowned the national half-marathon champions at the sold-out Charleville Half-Marathon in Cork.
Running for Ballina AC, Armstrong took the win in 1:04.35 after a tight battle with defending champion Ryan Creech (Leevale) who ultimately came home in second in 1:04.54. Eoghan Totten (Newcastle & District AC) was third in 1:05:56.
Heaslip, from An Riocht AC in Castleisland, took the women’s race in 1:10:57, adding the half-marathon title to her 10k road title from earlier in the year. Grace Lynch (Dundrum South Dublin A.C.) made it back to back national road medals having taken gold in the 10 mile earlier this year. Lynch would finish in a time of 1:15:38 ahead of Ciara Wilson (D.M.P. AC).
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