Endurance Potential 2026 Programme

12 June 2023

Endurance Potential 2026 Programme

Athletics NI are delighted to announce the athletes selected for the Endurance Potential 2026 Programme.

We would like to congratulate the following athletes, and their coaches:

Grace Carson (Bill Foster)

Conor Bradley (Teresa McDaid)

Hannah Irwin (James Thie)

Neil Johnston (Mark Kirk)

Jessica Craig

Conor Duffy (Emmett Dunleavy)

Sarah Kinnear (Catherine Diver)

Finn McNally

Claire McGuigan (Ann-Marie McGlynn)

Conan McCaughey (Mark Kirk)

Caitlyn Harvey (Noel McNally)

Eskander Turki (Michael McKnight)

 

Athletics NI Endurance Coordinator, Mark Kirk commented: “I am very excited to be involved with the Endurance Potential 2026 Programme which has been made possible with the very generous support of the Belfast City Marathon. I feel we have selected a very strong panel of athletes and I am looking forward to working with them and their coaches.”

There was a fantastic response to the project with almost 30 applicants in total and competition for places was very tough. The selected athletes will be provided with competition opportunities, training camps, athlete and coach education days and sports psychology. Our aim is to achieve the goal of 2 or more endurance athletes on the 2026 Commonwealth Games team.

Tom Reynolds, Athletics NI Performance Lead, stated: “It gives me great pleasure to be able to publicise a strong selection of athletes for the Endurance Potential 2026 Programme. With the greatly appreciated support from Belfast City Marathon, we believe that this group of athletes will continue to develop and go on to achieve the aims of the programme and contribute to our Sport NI Medals and More targets.”

We are very grateful to the Belfast City Marathon Ltd for their support of this initiative and look forward to a long and successful relationship with them.

Belfast City Marathon Executive Manager, Claire O’Neill, said: “As an organisation we are delighted to work in partnership with Athletics NI to help grow the talent of these gifted young sportsmen and women. We look forward to the success they will bring home to Belfast and hope they continue to inspire others to remain focused in the sport of athletics.”