Fionnuala McCormack sets lifetime best at Valencia Marathon

LIFETIME BEST: Fionnuala McCormack clocked the fastest marathon of her career in Valencia this morning, the 40-year-old taking 12 seconds off her previous best when finishing 11th in 2:23:46.

Fionnuala McCormack clocked the fastest marathon of her career in Valencia this morning, the 40-year-old taking 12 seconds off her previous best when finishing 11th in 2:23:46.

That was 83 seconds shy of Catherina McKiernan’s national record of 2:22:23, while Mayo native Sinéad Diver – who moved to Melbourne in her early 20s and now runs for Australia – remains the fastest Irishwoman of all time with the 2:21:34 she ran in Valencia two years ago.

McCormack's time was just 16 seconds shy of the automatic qualifying standard for next year's World Championships in Tokyo (2:23:30).

The course in Valencia is renowned as one of the world’s fastest and McCormack’s previous best of 2:23:58 was run there in 2021. In Sunday's race, she set off with McKiernan’s Irish record in her sights, passing 10K in 33:46 and hitting halfway in 1:11:25. She only slowed very slightly over the latter half as she hit the line just one second behind USA’s Sara Hall.

McCormack, a mother of three, finished 28th in the Olympic marathon in Paris, where she became the first ever Irishwoman to compete at five Olympics. “I don’t want to just be a participant in five Olympics, I wanted to be a performer,” she said then. “And I don’t think I did that today, so that’s disappointing. It was not what I envisaged.” When asked whether she might target a sixth Olympics in Los Angeles, she said: “I’m not going to stop running, I’m not sure I’ll ever do that, but I don’t want to end on that. I’d prefer to end on a positive.” The women’s race in Valencia was won by Ethiopia’s Megertu Alemu in 2:16:49, while Kenya’s Sebastian Sawe claimed the men’s title in 2:02:05.