Peter Lynch clocked a breakthrough time of 59 minutes 52 seconds to finish in fifth in Sunday’s New York City Half Marathon.
Although the point-to-point nature of the course in New York makes the race ineligible for record purposes, the 28-year-old becomes the first Irish athlete to break the one-hour barrier for the 13.1-mile distance.
Due to the ineligibility of the New York race, the current national half-marathon record of 60:22, set by Cork’s Fearghal Curtin in Copenhagen last September, remains intact.
Curtin’s half-marathon record came a month before he also broke the Irish marathon record last year, winning Gyeongju International Marathon in South Korea in 2:05:54, improving the previous record of 2:09:36 set by Kilkenny man Lynch last April at the Düsseldorf Marathon.
Adriaan Wildschutt from South Africa took the win in New York with his 59:30 effort as just 22 seconds separated the first five finishers. Grant Fisher from the US was 14th on his half marathon debut running 60:53.
Meanwhile, Nicola Tuthill won the first Irish medal in athletics of 2026, earning silver in the hammer at the European Throwing Cup in Cyprus with a lifetime best 72.48m.
It improves on the 71.75m she threw in August, moving the Cork woman ever closer to Eileen O’Keeffe’s national record of 73.21m, set in 2007.
Tuthill became the first Irish gold medallist at the European Throwing Cup last year, winning the Under-23 hammer title before going on to win silver at the World University Games in July.