EFREM Gidey continued his single-handed assault on the Irish men’s distance records when he smashed the 10,000m track time in the USA.
Gidey finished 12th at the Top Ten Meeting in California, recording a time of 27:26.95 to chop 13 seconds off the previous record, held since 2007 by Alistair Cragg.
The race was won in an American collegiate record of 26:50.21 by Kenyan Ishmael Kipkurui.
The 24-year-old Clonliffe Harrier now holds three of the most prized men’s distance records in Irish athletics. In January, he broke John Treacy’s 10km road record by three seconds at the Valencia Ibercaja race in Spain with a 27:43 mark.
Last September, he had annexed the national half marathon mark with a 60:51 clocking in Copenhagen.
Gidey came to Ireland in 2017 from his native Eritrea after spending six months in a refugee camp in Calais. He was taken under his wing by Clonliffe coach Joe Cooper, who sadly died in 2019.
Gidey has since retained close links with the Cooper family, who are still seen supporting him at races. He has represented Ireland internationally on numerous occasions, including when he claimed an individual bronze medal as an U20 at the European Cross Country Championships shortly after gaining his Irish citizenship in 2019.
Two other Irish athletes were competing abroad at the first World Athletics Continental Gold Meeting of 2025 in Melbourne, where the 17-year-old Gout Gout and Olympic 200m gold medallist Letsile Tebogo were the main attractions.
The Maurie Plant Memorial drew a record crowd, becoming the first one-day athletics meeting in Australia to sell out since the 2001 IAAF Grand Prix.
Sophie O’Sullivan made a quick return to competition in the 1500m after her elimination in the heats of that event at the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing the previous weekend.
It was not the happiest of races for the daughter of running legend Sonia O’Sullivan as she finished a distant eighth in 4:12.91, well behind Australia’s Claudia Hollingsworth, who won in 4:05.97.
Brian Fay was still with the lead pack in the men’s 5000m with four laps to run but fell off the pace to finish in seventh in 13:25.63. The race was won by Australia’s Ky Robinson in 13:13.17, less than a week after he had taken a bronze medal over 3000m at the World Indoors.
Both Gout and Tebogo suffered unexpected defeats in their respective events. Gout was bested in the men’s 200m by fellow Australian Lachlan Kennedy in a time of 20.26 seconds.
Kennedy had taken the silver medal in the 60m at Nanjing. Tebogo was also beaten into second spot by his Botswana compatriot Bayapo Ndori, who took an impressive victory in the men’s 400m, recording a 45.14 second mark.
Elsewhere on the world stage, North Belfast Harrier David Clarke completed a sensational week at the World Masters’ Indoor Championships in Florida. Competing in the 65-69 age group, Clarke took his third gold medal in six days on Saturday when he won the 1500m in 4:45.72.
Earlier in the week he had scored victories in the 800m (2:21.00) and 3000m (10:08.04) to set up his hat-trick of gold medals.
Three Ulster athletes have been named in the Irish teams to compete at the inaugural European Road Running Championships in Leuven and Brussels, Belgium on 12-13 April.
James Gormley will contest the men’s 10K, while Ann-Marie McGlynn and Emily Haggard-Kearney are selected for the women’s 10K. Record-breaker Efrem Gidey is also included in the selections for the half marathon.