12 June 2024; Efrem Gidey, left, and Brian Fay of Ireland compete in the men's 10,000m final during day six of the 2024 European Athletics Championships at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Italy. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
IRISH HALF MARATHON RECORD: Efrem Gidey set a new Irish record in the half marathon in Copenhagen this morning’ the 24-year-old clocking 1:00:51 to finish 15th in a race won by Kenya’s….
This morning in Copenhagen, 24-year-old Efrem Gidey broke the Irish half-marathon record by running 1:00:51 to place 15th in a race won by Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe in 58:05. Two years prior to testing positive for EPO, in 2009, Martin Fagan ran a time of 1:00:57 in Den Haag, setting the previous Irish record. With a time of 1:00:49, Alistair Cragg beat Gidey’s 2011 New York mark by two seconds, but the course’s net elevation drop prevented the time from being recognized as an Irish record. As soon as ratified, Gidey’s mark will become the official Irish record.
Gidey went out hard from the gun in the Danish capital, passing 5km in 14:16 and hitting 10km in 28:43. He held his pace well over the second half, covering the third 5km section in 14:31 and the fourth in 14:30 before hitting the line to carve six seconds off Fagan’s mark.
The run marks a big breakthrough for the Dubliner, who fled Eritrea in 2016 and spent several months at a refugee camp in Calais before arriving in Ireland in 2017, enrolling at Le Chéile Secondary School in Tyrrelstown where he learned English and soon became a fixture at the front of many schools races.
His talent was nurtured for much of his career by the late Joe Cooper of Clonliffe Harriers, Gidey winning a number of underage titles in the club’s colours. He got Irish citizenship in 2019 and later that year, he went on to win bronze in the U-20 race at the European Cross Country in Lisbon, also helping Ireland to a fourth-place finish in the team event.
In 2022, Gidey finished sixth in the 10,000m at the European Championships in Munich and since then he’s dabbled more in road racing, finishing a fine fifth in last year’s Great North Run, clocking 1:04:03. This year, he lowered his 5000m best to 13:23.83 and moved second on the Irish all-time list over 10,000m behind Cragg, clocking 27:40.02 in London in May.
This morning’s race in Copenhagen saw Norwegian middle-distance star Jakob Ingebrigtsen make his debut at the half marathon, the Olympic 5,000m champion getting a baptism of fire as he finished 34th in 1:03:13. Ingebrigtsen, who on Friday night won the Diamond League title over 1500m in Brussels, went out fast with the lead group, passing 10km in a blazing 27:27, but stopped shortly after that before resuming the race at a more conservative tempo.
Hugh Armstrong and Shona Heaslip won the National Half Marathon Championships in Charleville, back home. Armstrong finished ahead of Ryan Creech (1:04:54) and Eoghan Totten (1:05:56) with a time of 1:04:35. With a time of 1:10:57, Heaslip easily defeated Grace Lynch (1:15:38) and Ciara Wilson (1:17:18) in the women’s race.
