Resplendent running conditions in the Phoenix Park helped set up James Hyland for the biggest win of his career on Sunday as he claimed victory in the Irish Life Dublin Half Marathon.
Hyland’s triumph was a timely confidence boost before he makes his marathon debut in five weeks’ time.
In the last of the trio of countdown races before the Dublin Marathon, and with just over 6,500 finishers, Hyland took the win in 1:08:52. The 24-year-old Raheny Shamrock runner has only recently moved from the track to the roads, showing plenty of promise in the process.
Meghan Ryan from Dundrum South Dublin was a clear winner of the women’s race in 1:16.46. She, too, is eyeing up the Dublin Marathon on October 25th, the 32-year-old having missed most of this year through injury.
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“Tough race, but it’s the biggest race I’ve won, it’s been a while since I last won a race,” said Hyland. “The last mile was hard, but it’s good to get a bit of momentum going before the marathon. We’ll see how it goes, and if I’ll keep doing them or not. A new challenge.”
Eddie O’Connor from Brothers Pearse AC chased hard to finish second, clocking 1:09:08, with Matthew McConnell (Ballyroan Abbeyleix and District AC) third in 1:09:32.
By halfway Ryan was already 30 seconds clear of her chasers in the women’s race, finishing more than a minute ahead of her Dundrum clubmate Ruby Wall, who clocked 1:17:51. Sarah Diamond from Kilcoole AC in Wicklow was third in 1:19.41.
“I haven’t raced in a while, because I was coming off a fairly bad injury earlier in the year, so it’s a good confidence boost in the lead up to Dublin,” said Ryan, who finished 10th in the Dublin Marathon last year, and fourth best Irish woman.
“You can never be that confident, because anything can happen behind you, especially in a half marathon. You can be feeling really good to mile nine, then all of a sudden, you’re not. So I just kept pushing, and the atmosphere was so good. There were certain points when I was literally going through smiling at people, because it was so nice.
“But I’m excited for Dublin, it’s just about getting to the start line healthy, and my body playing ball. Then anything can happen.”
A half marathon also proved to be the climax to the World Athletics Road Running Championships in Copenhagen, where Irish marathon record holder Peter Lynch finished 44th in 1:02:10, by his own admission a “little disappointing”.
Lynch had run 59:52 for the distance in New York in March (although that time didn’t count for record purposes due to the point-to-point nature of the course), and his main target remains the New York Marathon in November. Hiko Tonosa was the only other Irish runner in Copenhagen and finished 71st in 1:03:27.
Sweden’s Andreas Almgren continued his remarkable streak by setting a new European Record of 58:06 to take the win, with Kenya’s Agnes Ngetich setting a world record of 1:05:15 to claim the women’s crown.
The best Irish result of the weekend saw Darragh McElhinney break the long-standing Irish record for 5km on the road, clocking 13 minutes and 22 seconds on Saturday. In a thrilling race that saw Olympic and recent World Ultimate champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen losing out to Dawit Seare from Eritrea in the final few strides, with Seare also setting a national record of 12:56, McElhinney bettered the Irish record of 13:26, which had stood to Alistair Cragg since 2012. Brian Fay finished back in 38th place, clocking 13:48.
In the women’s mile, Sarah Healy was the best of the Irish in 13th, clocking 4:32.98, with Laura Nicholson not far behind, running 4:36.64 to finish 21st. In the men’s mile, Cathal Doyle was the best of the Irish when finishing 18th in 3:58.40, with European 1,500m bronze medallist Andrew Coscoran appearing some way off his best form when fading to 41st in the last 400m, clocking 4:07.95.
