The Antrim Coast Half Marathon was another mega event in many ways. Some of the world's best athletes came to the small coastal town of Larne, Co. Antrim. Both the mens and womens fields were stacked high with quality. The race has focused on attracting top athletes and is now ranked no. 10 in the world on the list of best Half Marathons. The race started off only 5 years ago with just 39 world athletes coming together to race each other during covid times. 

 

This year was the biggest to date with over 5,600 entering the race. The event has now also attracted the mainstream runner from Northern Ireland, Ireland, British isles and further afield. 

 

This year's race was very much eagerly awaited with the depth of talent listed to run. Joshua Cheptegei from Uganda had to pull out at the last minute with illness. However, there were many more to fill his shoes. Geoffrey Kamworor was of equal stature and took to the line. He is ranked 4th in the world for half the marathon distance with a time of 58:44. He is also the world half marathon champion and 3 times world cross country champion. We were in for a treat. Other top men were Tadesse GETAHON, Phil SESEMANN, Sondre MOEN NOR and  Vincent MUTAI. A huge effort was made by James and Ruth Mcilroy gathering all these great athletes and managing the logistics of a large-scale event like this. 

 

The womens race had Lilian KASAIT of kenya, Loice CHEMNUNG,Senayet GETACHEW, Mizan ALEM. Calli HAUGER-THACKERY from England was looking to break a women's British record. What a race we had ahead of us. 

 

On the Irish front Ryan Creech of Leevale, was heading the field with another Cork Man Michael Harty of East Cork lining up. 

 

The atmosphere was building as we got closer to the 11 am start. The atmosphere was electric and the organisation to get the huge crowd to the line was exceptional. All the big guns of elite athletes then arrived on the scene with 10 mins to go. To see such high world class athletes take to the one start line was a truly great scene. Race referee George Maybury of Clonliffe Harriers started the race right on the stroke of 11 am. 

 

Efrem Gidey of Clonliffe Harriers and John Travers of Donore Harriers had important roles to pace Geoffrey Kamworor to a possible 58 min time. Both were right on the money. To keep all on track Efrem needed to bring Geoffrey to 28 mins for 10k. This is exactly how it panned out. It was then up to Kamworor to do the rest on his own. On the turn around point the breeze slowed him and he lost about 1 min. He finished in an incredible time of 59:51. In 2nd place was Tadesse Getahon of Israel in a time of 61:21 and not far off his PB of 60:47. In 3rd place was Phil Sesemann of Britain clocking a time of 61:22. 

 

Ryan Creech led home the Irish in a great time of 64:48 as he starts to wind up for the Dublin Marathon. Michael Harty of East Cork was the 2nd Irish man home and also broke an Irish Masters Record recording an incredible time of 65:34 and finishing 12th overall. Just behind Harty was DSD A.C.s Paul O'Donnell also recording a time of 65:34.