National champion Gary O’Hanlon believes tomorrow’s Irish Examiner Cork City Marathon will be one of the most challenging editions of the event.

Rio Olympian Lizzie Lee insists age is no impediment to running fast marathons and says becoming a mother has actually helped her, physically and mentally, to get even quicker this year.

She ran her heart out, just like always, but as has increasingly been the case for Fionnuala McCormack at the European Cross Country, it just wasn’t enough.

Team Ireland have enjoyed an impressive fifth place finish in the men's relay event at the European Cross Country Championships in Slovakia.

A massive €56m investment in grassroots sports facilities announced by the Government this week will help produce and inspire a new generation of sports stars, Irish Olympian Lizzie Lee said.

Leevale Athletic Club will officially open its new high-performance facility later this summer, and club chairman Donal Murnane is understandably proud of their new training centre.

There was never any doubt that Thomas Barr would win the athlete of the year award at the Irish Life Health National Athletics Awards yesterday.

Fionnuala McCormack will again lead Irish hopes at the European Cross Country Championships in Chia, Italy on December 11.

When the going got tough, she was just getting going. Fionnuala McCormack turned in a typically battling performance to finish 20th in a lifetime best of 2:31:22 in the Olympic marathon yesterday, held in brutally hot conditions around the streets of Rio.

Mark English will be the first Irish athlete to take to the track in the Olympic Stadium this afternoon, the 23-year-old getting his campaign under way in the sixth heat of the men’s 800m at 2:55pm Irish time.

Your one-stop guide to all the Olympic action featuring Irish athletes.

As the countdown to the greatest sports show on earth begins, Marjorie Brennan talks to five of our Olympic athletes about their journey to Rio.

For several of Ireland’s best marathoners, the door finally closed on Olympic qualification at the London Marathon yesterday, with the race to Rio de Janeiro now left in the hands of selectors ahead of next month’s deadline.

Leevale AC retained their women’s title at the Glohealth National Road Relays, in Dublin, yesterday, while hosts, Raheny, won the men’s race.

Mark Hanrahan of Leevale Athletic Club led home an entry of well over 3,000 yesterday in the annual Ballycotton 10-mile road race in East Cork.

“Don’t let me get any notions,” said Lizzie Lee to her husband Paul on the drive back to Cork the day after the European Cross Country Championships.

After nine months of preparation, Lizzie Lee shaved five minutes from her marathon personal best in Berlin on Sunday, putting her in pole position for a place at the Rio Olympics...

Lizzie Lee produced a front-running performance to win the national half marathon championships in 73 minutes and 27 seconds on the streets of Dublin yesterday.

UK Athletics has found no evidence of wrongdoing by Mo Farah in the initial findings of its investigation into allegations of doping against his coach Alberto Salazar.

Gemma Steel denied Fionnuala Britton a maiden victory in a fascinating duel in blustery conditions in the Phoenix Park at the SPAR Great Ireland Run 10km on Saturday.

Fionnuala Britton produced the best road race of her career to finish second at today’s Spar Great Ireland run.

Athletics: The national indoor championships take place in Athlone this weekend with two headline acts having travelled very different paths to star in the midlands and then, hopefully, on the European stage next month.

Athletics: Athletics

Fionnuala Britton’s manager, Ian Chaney, insisted she will be focusing purely on her training, with media contact at a strict minimum, upon yesterday’s announcement of the Irish team for the European Cross Country Championships in Belgrade, Serbia on December 8.

The opening event at the new home of Cork cross-country at Riverstick was marked with an absorbing men’s senior race which saw East Cork regain the title from holders Leevale for their 10th win in 12 years.

The weather was about as mixed as the standards as thousands of women and wannabe women pounded out the route of the Evening Echo Cork Mini-Marathon.

Poland’s Bartosz Mazerski denied Clonliffe Harriers’ Gary O’Hanlon a fifth marathon victory in eight weeks at the Cork City Marathon yesterday, winning in 2:28:29 while 2008 Beijing Olympian Pauline Curley ran a new women’s course record of 2:47:44.

With favourable weather forecast, some exciting performances are expected today when the Leevale club promote the first day of a two-day programme of athletics.

Fionnuala Britton has had to withdraw from the SPAR Great Ireland Run on Sunday .

The Irish women’s European Cross-Country winning team will be amongst the medal favourites in the 40th edition of the IAAF World Cross-Country Championships in snow-swept Bydgoszcz, Poland tomorrow.

Robert Heffernan put on a masterclass of race walking to win his 15th national title but felt the atmosphere ‘dead’ on day one of the Woodie’s DIY National Indoor Championships in Athlone on Saturday.

Athletics Ireland High Performance Director Kevin Ankrom last night confirmed that a women’s team will compete at the World Cross Country Championships in Poland next month.

The Woodie’s DIY AAI Games in the new Athlone IT indoor arena produced a long list of new personal bests and one new record.

The likelihood of an Irish women’s team competing at the World Cross-Country Championships in Poland next March remains a distant one, despite the insistence of Athletics Ireland officials they remain open to the idea.