IRELAND’S KEVIN SEAWARD has finished in 15th place in the men’s marathon at the European Championships in Berlin.
Seaward came home in 2:16:58 — just over two minutes off the personal best he recorded in the Berlin Marathon in 2015 — to lead the Irish charge in this morning’s race.
Victory went to Koen Naert of Belgium, who set a championship record of 2:09:51 to take the gold medal ahead of Switzerland’s Tadesse Abraham (2:11:24) and Italy’s Yassine Rachik (2:12:09).
Seaward wasn’t the only Irish runner to finish in the top 20. A time of 2:18:00 was enough for Mick Clohisey to take 18th place, while Sean Hehir clocked a time of 2:18:58 to finish 25th and secure sixth place for the Irish team (6:53:55). The Italians (6:40:48) were the top team overall, with Spain (6:42:43) second and Austria (6:49:29) third.
Of the other Irish runners in the field, Sergiu Ciobanu’s time of 2:19:49 gave him 36th place and Paul Pollock was 47th after running a time of 2:23:26.
Lizzie Lee was the first Irish athlete to cross the finish line in the women’s race. The 38-year-old mother-of-two finished in 29th place in a time of 2:40:12.
Breege Connolly recorded a time of 2:41:53 to take 31st, with Gladys Ganiel O’Neill finishing 33rd after coming home in 2:42:42.
Volha Mazuronak of Belarus defied nose bleeds and almost taking a wrong turn with less than a mile to go to win in a time of 2:26:22. She had just six seconds to spare over France’s Clémence Calvin, who finished three seconds ahead of Eva Vrabcová Nývltová of Czech Republic.
Belarus (7:21:54) also took gold in the women’s team standings. Italy were second (7:32:46) and Spain were third (7:44:06). A combined time of 8:04:46 gave the Irish team eighth place.
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