Endurance coach backs Britton’s marathon bid

The shock announcement on Sunday that Fionnuala Britton will run in the marathon at the European Championships on August 16 is a high-risk strategy which has raised eyebrows in the athletics community.

Britton has never run a half-marathon, let alone a marathon, and is also planning on running the 10,000m at the championships on August 12.

The Kilcoole athlete is a last-minute addition alongside DSD’s Sarah Mulligan, both coached by national endurance coach Chris Jones, to compete in The Marathon Cup, a team competition run in conjunction with the European Championships Marathon, with results based on the national team’s three fastest finishers.

The performance standard guidelines on the high performance section of the Athletics Ireland website states qualification times of 2:38:00 for the marathon or 75:00 for the half marathon — neither have achieved this. There is an asterisk with 10,000m fitness standards (no set times) as agreed by the national endurance coach.

The decision to compete in a marathon should not be taken lightly and a number of past leading performers have questioned the reasoning for such a decision.

There has been no clear plan to prepare for the marathon this year. On July 15 Britton finished sixth over 5,000m in 15:38.01 in Lucerne and went on to double up that weekend at the National Championships over 5,000m and 1500m — winning the 5,000m in 15:39.40 and finishing second in the 1500m in 4:18.33.

The course in Zurich is a tough one and, coupled with a 10,000m in her legs four days previously, is leaving Britton susceptible to injury.

She will be looking to replicate the achievements of John Treacy who ran the 10,000m and the marathon at the LA Olympics in 1984 — also his debut marathon where he won silver.

However, the Wicklow woman has yet to show any significant form on the road.

Jones said the decision is about getting experience of championship running in the build up to the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. “Running a championship marathon, on a lap course, is completely different than running a big city-centre marathon,” Jones explained. “What is important for Fionnuala is to get a marathon experience in a championship environment, there is a great opportunity here for her to learn from this.”

Meanwhile, at the GloHealth National Half Marathon, run in conjunction with the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon, Mick Clohisey (Raheny Shamrock) won the Irish men’s title in 65:54, with England’s Scott Overall first over the line in 65:19.

Sarah Mulligan won the women’s race in 76:02.