Fionnuala McCormack produced another fine run to finish in 10th place in the New York City Marathon, just seven weeks after finishing in ninth place at the World Championships. The testing 26.2-miles through the five city boroughs is no place for fast times, still McCormack clocked 2:27:00 – over three minutes faster than she ran at those World Championships in Tokyo. Last December McCormack improved her lifetime best to 2:23:46 in Valencia, four months after she became the first Irish woman to compete in five Olympics. The previous best Irish women’s finisher in New York was Sonia O’Sullivan, who finished in 12th place back in 2002, running 2:32:06, after dropping from the leaders around the 16-mile mark. Given New York’s testing course, McCormack was unlikely to challenge Catherina McKiernan’s Irish record of 2:22:23, which was set in Amsterdam back in 1998.

Source: The Irish Times November 03, 2025 02:14 UTC