Kerry's Shona Heaslip and Tipp's Seán Tobin claim national 10k titles

Riocht A.C's Shona Heaslip. Picture: ©INPHO/Bryan Keane

Shona Heaslip and Seán Tobin claimed the national 10km titles on the roads of Dunboyne this afternoon, with Heaslip and women’s runner-up Ann Marie McGlynn securing B-standards for the European Championships in Rome.

Heaslip clocked a course record of 32:49 to take the women’s crown, the Kerrywoman going well under the European 10,000m B-standard of 33:15, with road races now eligible for track qualification. McGlynn was next in with 33:10 ahead of national cross country champion Fiona Everard (33:22).

“I’ve been fortunate that since I’ve come back from my injury things have been going really well on the road and the plan going forward is hopefully the European half marathon in June if selected,” said Heaslip. 

“Then hopefully I’ll be moving up to the marathon later this year with the debut being, fingers crossed, Valencia”.

In the men’s race, Tobin bounced back to form after a recent illness with a victory in 29:17, pulling clear of Pierre Murchan (29:21) in the final kilometre, with Emmet Jennings third in 29:44.

“I’ve had a big month of mileage,” said Tobin, who is preparing for the London Marathon next month.

 “I’ve been putting in a lot of work but I was still hoping to break 29 minutes today and close the last 3K hard, but the legs were a big flat and Pierre put a bit of pressure over the last 2K so he forced me to work.

“I got quite ill in January and it took me six or seven weeks to get right. Things started to click again in the last week or two and at the last minute I decided to jump in on this and it’s worked out, which is great.

"I finished this week with close to 120 miles in the legs. I’ve two more weeks of hard work to go and then we’ll start to taper. For London, I just want to run well and not worry about the outcome, and hopefully have a positive start to what will be a long marathon career”.

Elsewhere, Jodie McCann continued her fine form Down Under with a big PB over 3000m in Sydney of 8:52.92, moving her to ninth on the Irish all-time list. In Melbourne, Andrew Coscoran claimed victory over 1000m in 2:19.36 ahead of Australia’s Stewart McSweyn and fellow Irishman Paul Robinson (2:20.78).