Efrem Gidey breaks Irish half marathon record in Copenhagan
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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 Sabastian Sawe in 58:05.
The previous Irish record was the 1:00:57 run by Martin Fagan in Den Haag in 2009, two years before he tested positive for EPO. Alistair Cragg ran two seconds faster than Gidey's time in New York in 2011, clocking 1:00:49, which was not ratified as an Irish record due to the course’s net elevation drop. Subject to ratification, Gidey's mark will stand as the new 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.
Back on home soil, Hugh Armstrong and Shona Heaslip claimed victories at National Half Marathon Championships in Charleville. Armstrong clocked 1:04:35 to come home ahead of Ryan Creech (1:04:54) and Eoghan Totten (1:05:56). Heaslip was a dominant winner of the women’s race, clocking 1:10:57 ahead of Grace Lynch (1:15:38) and Ciara Wilson (1:17:18).