In-form Fagan targets Tergat in Phoenix Park

FOLLOWING his record-breaking run in Holland last weekend, Martin Fagan has returned to his training base at Flagstaff, Arizona, but he will be back in Ireland in two weeks when he will bid to become the first Irishman to win the Great Ireland Run in the Phoenix Park.

The Mullingar man has been based at altitude (7,000 feet) for the past two years and returning to sea level a few times to qualify for the Olympic Marathon and take on the Africans in some of the world’s top road races.

It was in one such race, the Fortis City-Pier-City Half-Marathon in the Hague, that he clocked 1:00:57 (4:39 per mile) to break John Treacy’s 21-year old national record (1:01:00).