Glengarriff athlete surges up to second in Irish all-time 5000m list
DARRAGH McElhinney produced one of the best runs of his life to clock a stunning new 5000m personal best at Oordegem in Belgium on Saturday.
The Bantry AC runner, back in form, took over TEN seconds off his PB set last month as he ran a blistering 13:02.06 to surge up to second on the Irish all-time list.
Only national record holder Brian Fay, with 13:01.40, has run faster over this distance than Darragh.
It’s the third time in recent months that Darragh has broken his 5000m PB, first running 13:16.26 in Paris in June to better his own personal best that had stood for three years. Then the West Cork athlete clocked 13:12.17 at the Night of Athletics meet in Belgium last month. Now he has reached a new level with this blistering 13:02.06, which represents a huge breakthrough and pushes him closer to becoming the first Irish athlete to run a sub 13-minute 5000m.
This was a sensational effort from the Glengarriff athlete who has now achieved the qualifying standard for the 2026 European Athletics Championships, and who is also chasing qualification to next month’s World Athletics Championships – Darragh’s new PB sees him hit the B qualifying standard so boosts his chances of getting on the flight to Tokyo.
Last month Darragh also set a new one mile personal best with a brilliant 3:51.9 at the Morton Mile, a time that moved him to eighth on the all-time Irish list.
At the recent Irish track and field senior championships he moved down to the 1500m and finished fourth in a stacked final, just behind Cathal Doyle, Andrew Coscoran and Nick Griggs, the latter who Darragh finished ahead of in Oordegem last weekend.
‘I have been running pretty well over both distances this year,’ Darragh explained at the nationals, ahead of the 1500m final.
‘I am planning to try and qualify for the Worlds in the 5k, and I kind of have my last chance (Oordegem) so I thought a hard 5k might impact that.
‘I still think I am competitive over 1500, I ran a good mile at the Morton Games this year – it’s challenging to come down and run against guys who specialise in this distance, but it’s really good training.’
