AOIFE COOKE HAS become the second Irish athlete to secure a place in the women’s marathon at the Tokyo Olympics after she smashed her personal best this morning in Cheshire.
Cooke was competing at the Cheshire elite marathon and her time of 2:28:30 is enough to ensure she will join Fionnuala McCormack in securing the 2021 Olympic marathon standard.
Thanks everyone for all the kind messages. I think it’s going to take me 2 hours 28minutes and 36 seconds to go through all of them! But for now it’s ‘recovery’ time 😁 pic.twitter.com/kJLlTFqSaP
— Aoife Cooke (@cooke_aoife) April 25, 2021
The Eagle AC runner was the first woman to cross the line as she improved on her previous personal best of 2:32:34, recorded in 2019 when she won the Irish marathon title in Dublin.
Today’s result places Ballincollig native Cooke 4th on the Irish all-time list, just ahead of Sonia O’Sullivan.
There was disappointment for Ann-Marie McGlynn who was also competing at the Cheshire event but despite a 2.29.34PB, she was just four seconds outside the Olympic standard.
Both athletes had acquired elite athlete exemptions to compete in this morning’s event.
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