Fionnuala Britton Impresses At Great Ireland Run

Fionnuala Britton (Kilcoole AC) produced her best performance to date on the roads at the SPAR Great Ireland Run which also incorporated the national 10k championships. The event was held in blustery conditions in Dublin's Phoenix Park on Saturday, 11th of April with thousands of runners completing the tough 10 kilometre course.

Impressive Britton
Britton was using the 10k race in the park as starting point as she builds towards an Autumn marathon. The Wicklow native took on current European Cross Country Champion Gemma Steel in the battle for the overall title. Steel proved too strong on this occasion as she opened up a decisive gap in the last 2k to take the win in a time of 33.03. Britton stuck to her task to finish an encouraging second place in a big new road personal best of 33.07. Britton also had the added bonus of winning the national 10k title with Lizzie Lee (Leevale AC) second in a time of 34.18 and Kerry O'Flaherty (Newcastle AC) third in a time of 35.27.

Men's Race & Elite Mile
The men's race was dominated by Kenyan and Ethiopian athletes with Japheth Korir of Kenyan defending his title to win in a fast time of 28.15. Leading the Irish charge was Mullingar AC athlete Mark Christie as he won the national 10k title in a time of 30.10 with Clonliffe Harrier duo Sergiu Ciobanu (30.20) and Brandon Hargreaves (30.32) finishing second and third respectively
European Indoor 800m silver medalist Mark English (UCD AC) found the longer distance too much as he dropped out of the elite mile race at the 1,200m point. Jonny Hay of Great Britain stormed to victory in a time of 4.12 with Danny Mooney (Letterkenny AC) leading the Irish athletes' home in sixth place (4.16).

Qualifying Standards for Barr and Healy
At the Irish University Championships in Belfast Irish 400m hurdles record holder Thomas Barr (Ferrybank AC/UL) opened his season in style to win the title in a time of 50.44 seconds. The time was inside the required standard (50.60) for the World University Games which are set for Korea from the 8th-14th of July.Phil Healy (Bandon AC) was also in flying form as she ran a time of 11.74 seconds in the 100m at a meet in Jacksonville Florida. The time was just inside the qualifying standard of 11.75 seconds for the European U23 Championships set for Estonia in July.