RECORD BREAKING WEEKEND 24TH MAY 2025

On Friday night on the roads at the Cheshire 5K Emily Haggard Kearney (NBH) finished first woman in a time of 15.14 to eclipse Ciara Mageean’s previous record of 15.24. On Saturday evening in Brussels Roisin Flanagan (Finn Valley) broke her own NI 5000m record finishing third in 15.25.51. This follows Anna Gardner’s Irish and NI U20 record which she set in the 5000m last weekend running 16.17.63 in the Big 10 Conference in the US.

Conor Kelly (Finn Valley) produced an outstanding run in less-than-ideal conditions in Brussels clocking 46.18 to set a new Irish and NI U20 record over 400m. This time now ranks him number one in Europe for his age group. He raced again over 200m on Sunday lowering his pb to 21.02.

There was a European U23 A standard for Callum Morgan (CNDR) over 5000m in Brussels, smashing his previous best by over ten seconds clocking 13.35.36. There were also significant performances from his Candour team mates Conall McClean and Tony McCambridge who ran 13.57.39 and 13.57.60 respectively.

Also running 5000m over in Bury at the British Milers BMC GP our local athletes produced significant performances. Jack O’Farrell (Newry) had a comfortable win in the men’s A race running a pb of 14.00.04. In The women’s A 5000m Roise Roberts (CNDR) knocked almost twenty seconds of her previous best to finish third in 16.36.00. A time that was just outside a standard for the European U23 Championships.

Closer to home on Sunday at the Newell 5k and 10k road races there was a massive pb for Hannah Gilliland (Annadale Striders) who won the women’s race in 15.51 which was also a course record. Finn McNally (NBH) completed a unique double winning both the men’s 5k and 10k races.

On Monday at the Stratford Speed meeting in London Ben Sykes (Orangegrove) lowered his NI U18 record twice in one day. His fastest clocking was an impressive 10.62 (1.6)