International medallists Kate O\u2019Connor, Mark English, Rhasidat Adeleke, Fionnuala McCormack and Sarah Healy are among the star names on the Irish team for the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham (10-16 August).<\/p>\n
Athletics Ireland announced its provisional selection on Tuesday following the closing of the qualification window on Monday morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Those confirmed have achieved the automatic A standard in their events, while many others will have to wait for the final list of qualifiers via the rankings system \u2013 the final team due to be announced on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Kate O\u2019Connor will have medal hopes in the heptathlon and the Dundalk athlete proved she\u2019s in fine form with a strong start at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow this morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor, who was born in Newry and is based in Belfast, clocked 13.54 (0.8m\/s) in the 100m hurdles before clearing 1.82m in the high jump, putting her out front with five events left in the heptathlon on 2,047 points \u2013 four clear of England\u2019s Jade O\u2019Dowda.<\/p>\n
She will be back in action in the shot put at 7pm this evening with the 200m to round out day one at 8.04pm. O\u2019Connor has yet to win a medal at the European Championships outdoors, having missed the 2022 edition through injury and the 2024 edition in Rome while focused on Olympic qualification, but she did win European indoor bronze last year in the pentathlon.<\/p>\n
English, who has won two European medals outdoors and three indoors, will aim to add to that tally in Birmingham and he will go into the men\u2019s 800m at the top of the rankings with the 1:42.97 he ran in London recently.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He missed the nationals last weekend due to an Achilles issue but is expected to take his place at the Europeans, while teammate Cian McPhillips \u2013 who clocked a season\u2019s best of 1:43.97 in London \u2013 will have his eyes on his first senior international medal.<\/p>\n
Healy missed the nationals due to a setback but the Dubliner should be one of Ireland\u2019s leading medal chances in Birmingham, and national 1500m champion Sophie O’Sullivan may also have her eyes on a podium finish.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Healy is entered for both the 1500m and 5000m and the longer race will be run as a straight final on day two, with the 1500m taking place on days six and seven.<\/p>\n
Adeleke made a welcome return to Irish soil at the nationals last weekend and, in her final attempt, secured the 200m qualification standard of 22.85, clocking 22.80 into a stiff headwind. The Tallaght sprinter is also selected as part of the women\u2019s 4x400m relay.<\/p>\n
There is lingering doubt surrounding the participation of Sharlene Mawdsley, who pulled up sharply about 60 metres into the 200m final last weekend. The Tipperary sprinter was due to undergo an MRI scan on Monday to assess the damage.<\/p>\n
Andrew Coscoran made the world final over 1500m last year and was highly impressive when kicking to victory at the nationals last weekend, and the Dubliner will have high hopes of his first major international medal when he lines up in Birmingham.<\/p>\n
Defending champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen confirmed earlier this week that he will also compete at the Europeans, with the Norwegian set to focus on just the 5000m, where Darragh McElhinney will lead the Irish chances after a convincing display to win the national title.<\/p>\n
Five-time Olympian Fionnuala McCormack will have high hopes in the women\u2019s marathon. She has raced sparingly this year, clocking 32:56 for 10km on the roads in New York in June, though she can certainly contend for a medal if reproducing a similar run to last year\u2019s World Championships, where she finished ninth in the marathon.<\/p>\n
Nicola Tuthill will lead the Irish hopes in the field events. The 22-year-old is in the form of her life with a PB of 72.73m in Poznan, Poland last month and she can certainly improve on her ninth-place finish in the 2024 European final in Rome.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are excited about the prospects for this cohort of athletes at what is essentially a local championship for athletes and supporters,\u201d said Paul McNamara, Athletics Ireland\u2019s High Performance Director.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe team includes many seasoned performers who have delivered medals at the highest level, and many others who are hungry to replicate that success. With a probable final team size of approximately 50 athletes, and no fewer than 20 athletes who have achieved A standards, this will be a week of non-stop action as Irish athletics continues to build on its upward trajectory.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Irish Team \u2013 European Athletics Championships, Birmingham\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
Cian McPhillips (800m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mark English (800m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kate O’Connor (heptathlon)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sarah Healy (1500m, 5000m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Israel Olatunde (100m, men\u2019s 4x100m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sean Aigboboh (200m, men\u2019s 4x100m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sharlene Mawdsley (400m, women\u2019s 4x400m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nicola Tuthill (hammer)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Darragh McElhinney (5000m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nick Griggs (5000m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew Coscoran (1500m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rhasidat Adeleke (200m, women\u2019s 4x400m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lauren Roy (*100m, 200m, women\u2019s 4x100m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
David Kenny (half marathon race walk)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sophie O’Sullivan (1500m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jack O’Leary (10,000m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Oisin Lane (marathon race walk)<\/p>\n
Fionnuala McCormack (marathon)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sarah Lavin (100m hurdles)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Paul O\u2019Donnell (marathon)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bori Akinola (*100m, men\u2019s 4x100m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Marcus Lawler (men\u2019s 4x100m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan Mulholland (*200m, men\u2019s 4x100m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lucas Fadden (women\u2019s 4x100m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ciara Neville (*100m, women\u2019s 4x100m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lucy-May Sleeman (*100m, women\u2019s 4x100m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sarah Leahy (women\u2019s 4x100m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mollie O’Reilly (women\u2019s 4x100m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Molly Scott (women\u2019s 4x100m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jack Raftery (*400m, men\u2019s 4x400m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew Egan (men\u2019s 4x400m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sean Doggett (men\u2019s 4x400m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Joe Doody (men\u2019s 4x400m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ciaran Carthy (men\u2019s 4x400m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Darragh Murphy (men\u2019s 4x400m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sophie Becker (women\u2019s 4x400m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rachel McCann (women\u2019s 4x400m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cliodhna Manning (women\u2019s 4x400m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Arlene Crossan (women\u2019s 4x400m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n *Pending allocation of quota place Provisional selections: athletes with a B standard who will be selected if allocated a quota place by European Athletics:\n <\/p>\n
Ryan Creech (marathon)\u00a0<\/p>\n
David McGlynn (marathon)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Eric Favors (shot put)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Oisin Lane (half marathon race walk)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brian Fay (5000m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cathal Doyle (1500m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Abbie Sheridan (3000m steeplechase)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Emma Moore (800m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jodie McCann (1500m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Niamh Allen (10,000m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cillian Kirwan (800m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fiona Everard (10,000m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cormac Dalton (10,000m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alex O’Neill (800m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Elizabeth Ndudi (long jump)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anna McCauley (heptathlon)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anika Thompson (10,000m)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shay McEvoy (10,000m)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"International medallists Kate O\u2019Connor, Mark English, Rhasidat Adeleke, Fionnuala McCormack and Sarah Healy are among the star names…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-572485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}