Tallaght's Israel Olatunde smashes Irish 100m record in London

RECORD SMASHER: Tallaght AC's Israel Olatunde broke his own Irish 100m record by 0.05. Photo by Tyler Miller/Sportsfile

Israel Olatunde has smashed his Irish 100m record in London, the 22-year-old clocking 10.12 (+1.7m/s) at the NEB Open to take a whopping 0.05 off the previous mark.

Competing in Newham, the Tallaght AC sprinter produced the performance of his life to beat Britain’s Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake (10.14) and Stephen Baffour (10.17). Also in the race was Clonliffe’s Marcus Lawler, who came home seventh in 10.35.

Olatunde had run the previous Irish 100m record of 10.17 to finish sixth in the 2022 European final in Munich, dipping under Paul Hession’s long-standing mark of 10.18. However, the Dundalk native endured a tough 2023, clocking a season’s best of 10.32 outdoors.

While he fell short of qualification for the Paris Olympics, there were signs at nationals in June that Olatunde was coming back to form, clocking 10.27 to take victory. Coached by Daniel Kilgallon, Olatunde has been one of the brightest stars in Irish sprinting for several years, winning seven national senior titles between 60m and 100m and clocking 6.57 for the former distance.

In Rome earlier this summer, he finished seventh in the European semi-final in 10.40, but with a vicious automatic qualifying standard of 10.00 for the Olympics, and Olatunde lacking crucial ranking points, he was forced to watch the Games from afar.

However with this latest run he has ignited hopes that Ireland will soon have a male 100m sprinter on the world stage. His time of 10.12 today would have been good enough for fourth in this year’s European final.