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.
Roll on 2025, where better things were to come. In January, he ran a decent half marathon in Houston recording 1:01.15 – putting him at number 5 on the Irish all-time list. He was back on track. Solid performances over 10 miles and 15km on the road in Washington and Florida followed. His 10-mile time of 45.59 was a new Irish record. Then finally on the 27th April this year, he ran the Dusseldorf marathon in Germany. He finished 3rd but more importantly he set a new national record of 2:09.36 snatching the honour from Hiko Tonosa who had only established it the previous October.
These days Peter is coached by former Irish international is coached by Alistair Cragg and trains with the Puma Elite Running Team which is based in North Carolina. After a recent stint at altitude, the Kilkenny man will head to Tokyo to make his World Championships debut.
International Majors
2015: European u20 Cross Country France 52nd
2016: European u20 Cross Country Italy, 24th
2018: NCAA Cross-Country Wiscoinsin114th
2019: European u23 Cross Country Portugal 26th
2019: NCAA Cross-Country Indiana13th
2020: NCAA Cross-Country Oklahoma 12th
2022: European Cross Country Italy, 15th
2024: European Championships Rome 10,000m 22th Final
2025: World Championships 10,000m, Tokyo
Personal Bests
Marathon: 2:09.36 NR 19/01/2025
Half: 1:01.15 15/09/2024
10,000m: 27:49.30 16/03/2024
10km: 27.55 27/08/2025
15km: 42.54 01/03/2025
10 miles: 45:59 NR 06/04/2025
