It was another busy weekend on the racing calendar, with Irish athletes turning heads on both sides of the Atlantic.
From Oregon to Tulsa: Collegiate Stars Impress Stateside
On Friday, Abdel Laadjel led the way with a fine victory to help Oregon to team gold, with Anika Thompson, the reigning European U23 10,000m champion, finishing ninth as a non-scorer on the same winning team. At the Big Ten, Alexandra Joyce placed 48th and Aisling Hawkins 82nd, while Dean Casey impressed with 16th at the Big 12 to contribute to Colorado’s team bronze. Over in the ACC, Matthew Neill finished 17th for Syracuse (team silver) and Nicole Dinan placed 83rd. There were more strong showings from Anna Gardiner 6th, Cara Laverty 14th, Jane Buckley 22nd and Niamh O’Mahony 23rd, all running for Providence, who claimed third in the team standings.
In other results, Cormac Dixon finished 21st and Jack Fenlon 24th (non-scorer) for Villanova’s bronze-medal side at the Big East, Seán Donoghue was 65th in the same conference, Ryan McCarthy 29th at Southland, Liam Lyons 13th at the Patriot League, Conal Rogers 37th (non-scorer for Northeastern’s team silver at the CAA), and Tadhg Donnelly 51st at the SEC.
Saturday saw more success. Roisin Treacy claimed individual silver and team gold for Loyola at the Atlantic 10 Championships. At the ACC, Shay McEvoy finished third, leading Tulsa to the men’s team title, with teammate Sarah Hosey 46th and Muireann Duffy securing team silver in eighth. At the MAAC, Iona filled the top ten in the men’s race, with Billy Coogan 10th and Sean Lawton 38th. Oisín Spillane (St Mary’s) finished 18th, and Mark Milner (Portland) 33rd at the WCC.
It was a productive couple of days for the Irish young guns in the States, consistent performances across several major conferences, and a reminder of the growing depth within the NCAA ranks as the regional meets approach.
Griggs Leads the Charge at San Sebastián Meet
Ireland’s top cross-country talents made their mark at the Cross Internationale de San Sebastián, one of Europe’s oldest and most prestigious cross-country events. First held in 1956, the race is now recognised as a World Athletics Silver event, attracting a deep international field each year.
Nick Griggs led the Irish charge in the men’s race, finishing fifth, just ahead of Cormac Dalton in sixth and Callum Morgan in tenth. In the women’s race, Claire Fagan produced another strong run to claim fourth.
These outings serve as crucial tune-ups ahead of next month’s European Cross Country Championships in Portugal on 14 December, where Griggs and several others will hope to carry this form into the continental stage.
Fionnuala McCormack Rolls Back the Years in New York
Fionnuala McCormack delivered yet another fantastic performance on the streets of New York yesterday, finishing 10th in the women’s race with a superb 2:27:00, her fifth fastest marathon to date. Remarkably, the Kilcoole AC athlete produced that performance just seven weeks after competing over the same distance at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, showing the sort of durability and class that have defined her career.
The run puts McCormack firmly at the top of the Irish marathon standings for 2025 and, crucially, secures her an automatic qualifying time for the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham next year. For an athlete still competing at world level more than two decades after her international debut, it was another fine day’s work from one of Ireland’s most enduring distance greats.