Name: Peter Lynch
Club: Kilkenny City Harriers
Event: Marathon
Personal Best: 2:09.36 NR
Tokyo Schedule: Mon 15 Sept 0:00 (midnight)
Background
Peter Lynch had his formative years as a juvenile with Kilkenny City Harriers, prominent at national level over Cross-Country. In 2015 he finished 2nd in the national u20 cross-country to gain selection for the European u20 Cross-country championships – his first major championships for Ireland. Some well known names featured in that nationals; Kevin Mulchair of Ennis taking the gold, behind Peter in third was Jack O’Leary (Mullingar) and in fourth place was his Tokyo teammate Cathal Doyle (Clonliffe). Incidentally Shane Bracken (Swinford) was 31st in that same race.
Lynch secured second place the following year and made another European Cross Country. This time in Italy where he improved his performance to 24th. After a year in the University of Limerick he headed to Tulsa on scholarship and studied Engineering. Under the guidance of Taylor Gulley, he made three NCAA cross country appearances with notable performances in 2019 and 2020 where he finished 13th and 12th respectively. An u23 European Cross Country selection followed where he finished 26th. While he did race indoors and outdoors it was Cross-Country where his talent shone. His best cross-country performance in the Irish vest was probably that of 2022. At the nationals in Donegal, Lynch finished 3rd behind Darragh McIlhenny and Hiko Tonosa. An outstanding race at the Europeans saw his finish in 15th place. His only appearance at majors on the track in the Irish vest was over 10,000m at the European Championships in Rome where he finished 22nd. His main focus was already on the marathon.
2024 was a big year. He set a new personal best of 27:49.30 at ‘The Ten’ in March, one place ahead of Efrem Gidey. In October of that year, he made his debut over the longer distance of the marathon in Chicago. Things were going well until he hit that dreaded wall. Finishing with a time of 2:17.40 he was already planning his next marathon.
