McGonagle wins in Lanzarote as O’Neill second in women’s

Ciaran McGonagle, who runs for Letterkenny AC, was in fourth place at the half-way point, but then caught the leading trio of Iacopo Brasi (Italy), Diago Baena (Portugal) and Ben Gamble (Great Britain), and in the end won by almost a minute.

McGonagle won the 30th staging of the Lanzarote Marathon. Pic: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

Donegal athlete Ciaran McGonagle won the 30th staging of the Lanzarote Marathon, in a time of 2:33.27.

The Burtonport native, who runs for Letterkenny AC, was in fourth place at the half-way point, but then caught the leading trio of Iacopo Brasi (Italy), Diago Baena (Portugal) and Ben Gamble (Great Britain), and in the end won by almost a minute.

"It’s great to win it,” McGonagle said. “In the second half of the race I was coming back to the leading group and I knew if I kept going I would have a chance of catching them. Later in the race when it started to rain it was like good Donegal conditions and it probably did help when the sun went down a bit,” he commented.

Cork woman Nollaigh O’Neill (Leevale AC), who won the women’s event in 2013, 2015 and 2016, was second this time around in 3:02.26, with Yvonne Van Vlerken of the Netherlands taking first in 2:55.59.

Meanwhile Brian Fay (Raheny Shamrock AC) has broken the Irish indoor 5,000m record with a blistering 13.16.77 at the BU Sharon Colyear-Danville Opener in Boston to take over nine seconds off the record set by Barry Keane in December 2021.

The performance comes just weeks after Fay competed in the NCAA cross country championships which saw him claim an outstanding 13th-place (2nd European) finish. The Raheny star crossed in 8th place overall in the early hours of the morning, with previous record holder Barry Keane (Waterford AC) crossing in 14th to also better his old Irish record time in clocking 13:21.57.

Keane’s old Irish record of 13:25.96 had previously bettered the mark set by Alistair Cragg (13:28.93) which had stood since 2003.

Both Fay and Keane will be part of the Irish team taking to cross country action at the European Cross Country Championships in Turin next Sunday.

There was more good news for Irish fans stateside too, with Stephanie Cotter (West Muskerry AC) becoming only the ninth woman ever to win the NCAA D2 Cross Country title twice, having previously taken the race in 2019.

Women's Race (6000m) - Individual: 1. Stephanie Cotter (Adams State) 19:45.2 2. Lindsay Cunningham (Winona State) 20:27.2 3. Klaudia O'Malley (Grand Valley St.) 20:43.0