Paul Pollock and Kevin Seaward look to CWG after NI athletes impress at IAAF World HM Championships!

IAAF World Half Marathon Championships 2018 (by ATHLETICS NI):

Paul Pollock (Annadale Striders) took 77th place at the IAAF World Half-Marathon Championships in Valencia on Saturday (24th March 2018) in his final tune-up before running the marathon at the Commonwealth Games next month.

The 31-year-old from Belfast finished in a time of 1:04:29, less than five minutes behind Geoffrey Kamworor of Kenya who took his third title at the event in 1:00:02.

His Northern Ireland team-mate at Gold Coast 2018, Kevin Seaward (St Malachy’s AC), was 85th in 1:04.56 with compatriot Stephen Scullion (Clonliffe Harriers)seven places further back in 1:05:19.

“It was a real grind,” said Pollock, who will join the Northern Ireland squad in Australia on Monday. “When you come in at this level not 100% on your game, you always get found out. Fun experience but disappointing result. Onwards to Australia.”

Kilkeel-based mother-of-four Laura Graham (Mourne Runners) was 78th in the women’s race in 1:16:27 on her debut for Ireland with Fionnuala Ross (Armagh AC) just four places and 26 seconds behind in 1:16:53.

Ethiopia’s Netsanet Kebebe broke the world record for a women-only race to land the title in 1:06.11.

Results and placings for the full Ireland team are below:

Men:

Paul Pollock – 1:04:29 (77th place)
Kevin Seaward – 1:04:56 (85th place)
Stephen Scullion – 1:05:19 (92nd place)
Sergiu Ciobanu – 1:06:19 (101st place)
Kevin Dooney – 1:12:14 (135th place)

Ladies:

Lizzie Lee – 1:13:19 (46th place)
Claire McCarthy – 1:14:20 (57th place)
Laura Graham – 1:16:27 (78th place)
Laura Shaughnessy – 1:16:28 (79th place)
Fionnuala Ross – 1:16:53 (82nd place)

Full results for the event are available HERE.

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