Athletics 2026

yerwanthere123

New thread for a new year!

Some key dates:

10th January: World Cross Country Championships, Tallahassee

20th - 22nd March: World Indoor Athletics Championships, Torun

5th May - September 5th: Diamond League (commencing in Doha)

23rd July - 2nd August: Commonwealth Games

10th - 16th August: European Athletics Championships, Birmingham

11th - 13th September: World Athletics Ultimate Championships, Budapest

First year since 2018 (covid aside) that we don't have a major global championships, let's see what it brings!

yerwanthere123

The biggest story for me heading into the year is Bol's move up to 800m and how that will work out. Even at European level it's a tough event, she'll have her work cut out for her.

Lots to look forward to from an Irish perspective. If Cian McPhillips can bring his Tokyo form to 2026 then he'll absolutely be a gold medal contender in Birmingham. Will be intriguing to see how Adeleke's comeback will go, whenever it will be. If she can regain form then she'll also be a gold contender at Europeans.

I'd also like to see Sarah Healy improving further after a breakout 2025, would love to see her challenge for a medal in Birmingham. I sincerely hope Ciara Mageean can recover from her cancer diagnosis, it's all been very quiet since she announced it on Instagram. Hope that means she's just focused on her recovery and not anything more serious than that.

The watered down Commonwealth games should also be fun to watch, though you'd wonder whether it'll be the last.

On a personal note, I'm really looking forward to Birmingham as I have tickets to the whole thing. Will be a very exciting week! 😁

liamooooo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124108544#Comment_124108544

Definately be great to see if McPhillips can show that level consistently and if he has a look at the 1500.

GrIggs os due a massive breakthrough at 1500 and hopefully can get under 13 in the 5k.

HHopefully sophie o sullivan had an injury free winter and can get some consistent racing.

be interesting to see if either Alex or Maeve o neill continue their 800 improvements from last year and get under 2. Same with Rimear maher massive breakthrough at 1500 last year be great to see her push on to next level.

Brian Fay dipping his toe back into the steeplechase coukd be really interesting

Jack o leary seems to have had a great winter hopefully he can really go after the 10000 thos season.

Ava crean is fascinating. 20 year old with it seems 6 months of structured training since she joined the limerick group and most of that focus on the dublin marathon. Her speed development potential must be basically untouched. A big run in valencia 10k next weekend to get under 33 might put her in with an outside hope of the 32 minute 10k european qualyfying time when you think what her ceiling might be with structured training for 6 months

Cartman78

https://search.app/F5T2D

Former pro cyclist Dan Martin runs 29:53 10K 🔥

4Ad

World Cross country from USA starting at 12.00 today.

Valencia 10k race tomorrow at 8.15

Both on youtube

deisedude

World Cross Country on Virgin too

Cartman78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124134756#Comment_124134756

Just a heads up on this....coverage has just started on Virgin 2 but it's showing up as "Live Formula E racing" on the schedule (on Sky)

KaneToad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124135571#Comment_124135571

U20's men are lining up now

BP_RS3813

Good from Noah Harris.

Stuck with lead as long as he could. Great effort

Caprica

Fantastic running by Niamh for 21st and Fiona for 23rd, ranked 3rd and 4th Europeans

Camera work is not the best, a little to much drone coverage.

BP_RS3813

Is it FloTrack doing the coverage? They are always awful.

Caprica

Amazing run by Brian Fay for 16th, hot on the heels of Jimmy G. Finished 3rd European. Kiplimo looks so easy on the last lap.

An enjoyable event, plenty of good racing. Great to see Australia win the mixed relay. I expected a bit more from the US.

Pherekydes

Fay was 4th European, behind the two French guys and the, eh, European champion.

Jakey Rolling

Thx - finding the 10k coverage extremely annoying. Just showing the 2 men's leaders, then camera jumping between the women's leader and the 1st Spanish lady 2 mins back. No idea what's going on in between or accurate splits

Jakey Rolling

In the last 400m "Almgren could take the WR!!" - as he misses it by 20 sec

Caprica

I found the coverage a bit messy, the field was too big. Also did Almgren know where the finish was? He seemed a bit confused. The commentator didn’t as he was calling a WR 😂 It was good to Jack in his Mullingar Harriers vest at the start line, I think he was 27:40 or so.

Eilish McColgan ran a ER and we didn’t see her till she had finished when she was holding the record placard.

The overall entry must be huge, people were still starting as the elite finished.

Trampas

Seems to be the standard in Valencia just crazy stacked races

Ceepo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124137199#Comment_124137199

Looks like the Efrem broke his own Irish record running 27.38, Jack OLeary 27.41 which was also under the previous record, Cormac Dalton 28.03 and Callum Morgan 28.08.

Edit to add. I just see Ava Crean ran 32.39

liamooooo

Yeah some great running, o leary really coming through strongly over last 18 months well done to eifrem again

Ava crean dropping her pb by a minute in the few weeks since Athenry 10k

deisedude

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124137569#Comment_124137569

I think Crean is qualified for Birmingham now. 33min is the qualifying standard in the 10k

liamooooo

Definitely qualified for euro under 23s . Inside the B standard for the senior euro s but would need to get under 32 mins to get the A standard . Anita Thompson also has the B standard with a track 32.30 time

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18 January - CMCM Indoor Meeting, Luxembourg (Silver) streaming on European Athletics YouTube channel.Mark English running.