Weekend Preview- Seville & Coleraine

Northern Ireland’s marathon runners, Kevin Seaward and Gladys Ganiel will be hoping for the Tokyo Olympics selection time this weekend as they compete in the Seville Marathon on Sunday 23 February.

Kevin (St Malachys AC) ran a huge personal best at the Berlin Marathon in a time of 2 hours 13 minutes and 39 seconds, while Gladys (North Belfast Harriers) finished in 11th place at the Dublin Marathon in a PB time of 2 hours 36 minutes and 40 seconds.

The Tokyo qualification times are 2:11.30 for men and 2:29.30 for women. Following Kevin’s 4th place in the 2018 Commonwealth Games, he will be hoping for a big performance to join Northern Ireland’s Paul Pollock and Stephen Scullion who have already qualified.

Meanwhile this weekend…

NI & Ulster’s senior athletes will compete at the Ulster University Coleraine, at the NI & Ulster Senior Cross Country Championships, sponsored by Philip Tweedie & Company. Among the runners vying for the top spots will be UK Masters Champion, Mark McKinstry (North Belfast Harriers) and Rio Olympics Marathon Runner Breege Connolly (City of Derry Spartans) who will be hoping to retain their titles.

After a tremendous victory at last year’s 6k event, Breege will no doubt be set for a podium position again, with competition coming from last year’s 2nd place Sarah Lavery (Beechmount Harriers) who will be hoping to lead her club to a victory in the team competition as well, over 3 time winners, North Down AC.

In the Men’s 12k event, Mark will face competition from last year’s 2nd place Declan Reed (City of Derry Spartans) who will be hoping for the club prize for the 2nd year in a row. Other contenders for the podium will be Newcastle AC’s Patrick McNiff and Zak Hanna.

Full details and the start lists are available here: https://athleticsni.org/Fixtures/NI-And-Ulster-Senior-Cross-Country

Kevin Seaward, Senior XC Map

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