Efrem Gidey was among the plethora of record-breakers at Sunday’s Valencia 10km road race, running 27:38 to take five seconds off his own national mark set last year.
The Spanish event has built a reputation for fast running and did not disappoint, as Sweden’s Andreas Almgren broke his own European record when winning in 26:45, improving by eight seconds the time he also set in Valencia last year.
Gidey skipped Saturday’s World Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee, and the 25-year-old from Clonliffe Harriers paced his effort to perfection as he finished 12th overall, improving on the 27:43 he ran last year. The top 35 men all broke the 28-minute barrier, a record in its own right.
Limerick teenager Ava Crean also made the trip to Valencia for the women’s race, and improved her 10km best by almost a minute, running 32:46 when finishing in 47th place. Crean turns 20 later this month, and the national women’s marathon champion had recently run her previous best of 33:40 at the Fields of Athenry 10km on St Stephen’s Day.
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Britain’s Eilish McColgan regained her European record in the women’s race, running 30:09, won by Kenya’s Brenda Kipchirchir in 29:26.
Like Gidey, Jack O’Leary and Cormac Dalton from Mullingar Harriers were also part of the Irish men’s team that won team silver at last month’s European Cross Country in Portugal, but also opted to run in Valencia. O’Leary improved his 10km best of 28:13 to 27:41 when finishing 18th, also inside the 27:50 qualifying standard for the European Championships in Birmingham in August.
Dalton ran 28:03, in 39th, missing out on the Birmingham standard, and there was also a best of 29:08 for Callum Morgan, the 22-year-old from Belfast, who was part of the Irish under-23 team that won gold at last month’s European Cross Country.
There were five national records among the top 10, including for Germany, Norway, Spain and Portugal. Gidey finished one place and one second ahead of Mike Foppen, who revised the Dutch record to 27:39. Gidey’s time last year of 27:43 improved by three seconds the previous Irish record which had stood to John Treacy for 40 years. Last summer Gidey also improved the Irish 10,000m record on the track, running 27:26.95.
O’Leary (5th), Dalton (11th) and Gidey (19th) had all made the top-20 at the European Cross Country, but opted out of Saturday’s event in Tallahassee, where Brian Fay was the sole Irish interest in the men’s race when finishing 16th, the best Irish result in 13 years, since Fionnuala McCormack finished 14th in the women’s race back in 2013.
Crean continues to make stunning progress, her victory in the women’s national marathon in Dublin in October making her the youngest ever winner of the women’s title, when she improved her best by over nine minutes to 2:34:12.
