Ava Crean and David McGlynn claim national titles at 44th Dublin Marathon
WINNER: Ava Crean of Back 2 Boston Running Club A.C., Limerick, crosses the finish line to win the women's national title at the 2025 Irish Life Dublin Marathon. Pic: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
Limerick teenager Ava Crean and Waterford’s David McGlynn produced breakthrough performances to claim the national titles at the 44th edition of the Irish Life Dublin Marathon on Sunday, with overall victories going to Ethiopia’s Eebbissee Addunya (2:26:28) and USA’s Daniel Mesfin (2:08:51).
Crean, 19, had never run competitively before her marathon debut just six months ago in Manchester, but her time of 2:34:11 saw her finish sixth overall and carve over nine minutes off her previous best of 2:43:38, with national silver going to Ann Marie McGlynn in 2:36:24 and Nichola Sheridan taking bronze in 2:39:55.
“I still can’t believe it,” said Crean. “From the third kilometre I was like, ‘How am I supposed to keep this pace?’ I was getting cramps here and there but I kept pushing. With 10 kilometres to go my legs seized up. I never felt so much lactate in my legs before. I couldn’t even believe it until I saw the finish line. In my head, I was fighting demons the whole time. But I just kept pushing, kept pushing.”
For David McGlynn, a graduate of Providence College in Rhode Island, the day also marked an arrival of sorts – the 26-year-old Waterford AC athlete hacking over four minutes off his previous best to finish fifth overall, clocking 2:10:59 to win the national title. He was followed home by Ryan Creech of Leevale (2:11:46) and Paul O’Donnell of Dundrum South Dublin (2:12:11).
“It’s hard to put it into words,” he said. “You have these dreams that if the perfect day comes together you could pull off something like that, but when it actually happens, it’s just surreal.” The race set off in cool, damp conditions from Leeson Street Lower as runners embarked on a 26.2-mile journey through Dublin’s city centre, the Phoenix Park and surrounding suburbs before finishing at Mount Street Upper. There was a record-breaking turnout, surpassing the milestone 40th-anniversary event in 2019.
In the women’s race, 45-year-old Ann Marie McGlynn was targeting her third straight national title but was unable to match the pace of Crean over the final 10km. There may be 26 years between Crean and McGlynn in age, but there was rarely more than a couple of metres between them for much of the race, with both passing 10km in 36:51 and Crean leading them through halfway in 1:17:13, just over five minutes behind the leaders (1:11:46).
When Crean began to learn about the sport earlier this year, she had looked up McGlynn’s winning times of 2:34 for the past two years and felt they were out of reach. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s amazing,’” she said. “Listening to her and the story that she missed out on the Olympics by four seconds and she kept running, and she’s still running at 45 – I want something like that. That’s amazing.”
Wearing the colours of the Back 2 Boston Running Club – which was started by her coach, John Kinsella – Crean broke clear of McGlynn approaching 30km and extended that advantage all the way to the finish, raising her arms aloft as she approached the line. “The guys on the course and the crowds were amazing,” she said. “They kept saying, ‘Keep going, hold on,’ and that’s what I did.” A native of Raheen in Limerick City, Crean did climbing, karate and camogie in her youth but took a four-year hiatus from sport towards the end of primary school before taking up basketball, earning a place on the U-17 national team academy. She started running purely as a way of staying fit during the pandemic, and after enrolling at University Academy 92 in Manchester last year, she signed up for the Manchester Marathon, listing her target time as 3:30 but finishing in 2:49.
Her run in Dublin puts her second on the Irish women’s marathon top list for 2025 behind Fionnuala McCormack’s 2:30:16 and moves her 13th on the Irish all-time list.
For McGlynn, silver felt almost as good as gold, having torn her hamstring six weeks ago, which left a question mark over whether she could compete. “Getting on that start line for me was winning,” she said. “I don’t want to make excuses, but I wasn’t myself today.”
McGlynn had run the race in honour of her husband’s grandmother, Margaret, who passed away on Friday. But bypassing the race was never on the table. “If it was any other marathon I’d have thought, ‘lay down,’” she said. McGlynn had Crean’s “card marked” before the race and paid tribute to the new champion: “She showed up today and she was full of running.” At the front of the race, four women had passed 30km together but by 35km, the race for glory was down to two with Addunyaa joined by Ethiopian compatriot Kena Girma. Addunya had the better strength in the closing kilometre and came home four seconds clear of Girma (2:26:32) with fellow Ethiopian Atsede Baysa third in 2:27:12.
In the men’s race, Hiko Tonosa led the way for the Irish until 30K but, as it was at the recent World Championships, he was unable to reach the finish, stepping off the course soon after as he was fading out of contention.
Up front, the men’s race boiled down to a duel between Mesfin and Siyum and at the last water station it looked as if Siyum had stolen a decisive lead when Mesfin stalled to take a drink, but the US athlete ran down his rival and surged clear with a kilometre to run. Sweden’s Samuel Tsegaye rounded out the podium in 2:09:28.
McGlynn had passed halfway as the fourth Irishman in 1:04:58 but he overtook Tonosa just after 30km, holding his pace admirably in the closing kilometres to clock 2:11:01, which moves him 10th on the Irish all-time list.
He had logged 200km a week in training while on an Athletics Ireland altitude camp in Font Romeu, France, in preparation. “When you’re running that much, it’s hard to tell what shape you’re in because you’re so tired all the time,” he said. “But this week, you start to taper and feel really good and think a big day could be on the cards. But I don’t know if I even expected something like that.” He said his hamstrings were “cramping pretty bad” in the closing kilometres. “The last few miles, the atmosphere was all that kept me going.” Thousands of charity runners and familiar faces were among those on the start line at another memorable edition of the fabled race. Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley and assistant manager Glenn Cronin were running to raise €100,000 for Oscar’s Kids, while former Irish International footballer Damien Duff was running in support of Heart Children Ireland.
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