Thomas Barr voted European athlete of month

Thomas Barr is European athlete of the month for April, rewarded for his European-leading 400m hurdles time of 49.08 to win at the Tom Jones Classic in Gainesville, USA, on April 24.

Voting for European athlete of the month took place through the European athletics Twitter and Facebook pages over the weekend. Athletes with the most combined Twitter ‘retweets’ and Facebook ‘likes’ were crowned the winners.

The Ferrybank hurdler, based in Limerick, had by far the most support on the men’s side with over 1,300 Facebook votes and 280 retweets and favourites on Twitter.

Meanwhile, Kenyan Joel Kipsang Kositany won the Belfast City Marathon yesterday in 2:19:36 — repeating his 2013 victory. His compatriot Gideon Kimosop crossed the line 53 seconds later while Tamas Janos Nagy placed third in a time of 2:24:22.

Annadale Striders’ Eddie McGinley was the first domestic runner across the line in fourth (2:25:25). Berhan Gebrenmichael from Ethiopia, was the first woman to cross the line in 2:40:57. Elaatiba Khadja from Morocco was next in 2:51:05 from Katalin Garami (Hungary) in 2:56:42.

More than 1,000 athletes took part in the Great Limerick Run marathon on Sunday which was won by Kenyan Freddy Keron Sittuk (Raheny Shamrock) in 2:26:38 with Lezan Kimutai second in 2:27:08 and Wexford’s third in Tom Hogan 2:31:30. The Great Limerick Run also incorporated a half marathon and six-mile race.

Peter Somba won the half in 67:04 with Clonliffe Harriers’ second Sergiu Ciobanu in 67:11. Cillian O’Leary (Raheny Shamrock) was third in 71:50. In the women’s half Youghal’s Aoife Cooke won in 1:25:39 followed by Hannah Fothergill in 1:26:24 and Dena Hogan in 1:29:24.

Rathfarnham’s Sean Hehir dominated the six-mile race in 30:28 while Catherina McKiernan (Cornafean) won an exciting tussle with Orla Drumm (Crusaders) — both were timed in 34:06.