Andrew Egan will swap the long sprint for a dash down the straight this evening as he contests the men’s 100m at the Meeting Serale in Bellinzona, Switzerland.
It is an unusual change of distance for the Galway City Harriers athlete, whose 2026 campaign has largely been built around 400m. Tonight will mark his first appearance over 100m since April 2024, with his personal best of 10.96 dating back to May 2022.
Egan has kept busy since missing the Irish 400m title by the width of a vest in July. He clocked 46.16 in the national final, finishing only four hundredths behind Jack Raftery’s winning time of 46.12.
That race came shortly before Egan spoke to Run Republic’s Paddy Ryan about his move to Zurich, his methodical approach to athletics and the work behind his rise through the Irish sprinting ranks in The Method Behind the Medal.
Less than three weeks after Nationals, Egan opened for Ireland in the men’s 4x400m relay at the European Championships in Birmingham. His 46.4 split helped the quartet to a season’s best of 3:01.76, the third fastest Irish performance in history. Ireland finished sixth in their heat and 10th overall, narrowly missing the final.
The racing has continued since Birmingham. Egan won over 400m in Regensdorf on 22 August in 46.82 before taking another victory four days later at the Wiesław Maniak Memorial in Poland. His 46.15 there was a season’s best and one hundredth quicker than his run at Nationals.
Last Thursday brought another change of distance and another encouraging result. Egan finished third over 300m at the Velká cena Chebu, setting a personal best of 33.09 and moving to fourth on the Irish all time list.
Tonight completes a steady shortening of the task, from 400m in Poland to 300m in Czechia and now 100m in Switzerland. It offers Egan a chance to test his raw speed near the end of a long season. For once, the finish line should arrive before the familiar 400m pain has properly introduced itself.
Twenty six athletes are listed for the race, with Portugal’s João Sepulveda Moreira holding the quickest personal best in the field at 10.72. Egan is based in Zurich, making this a relatively local outing after several weeks on the European circuit.
Meeting Serale, Bellinzona
⏰ 6.10pm – 🏃♂️ Andrew Egan – Men’s 100m
📊 Results
The very best of luck to Andrew as he returns to the track in Switzerland this evening.
