DARRAGH McElhinney made it three national 5000m titles in style.

The Bantry AC athlete added to his gold medal successes in 2020 and ’22 by powering to glory at the 123.ie National Senior Track & Field Championships at Morton Stadium.

While the Glengarriff man’s focus has now switched to the European Athletics Championships in mid-August (10th to 16th), he knows too it’s important to mark the moment – winning a national title is special.

‘Sometimes you lose sight of it when you’re always thinking about the next major championships,’ he told The Southern Star.

‘The 5000m has brought me my three national senior outdoor titles but they’re also the only three times I’ve run the 5k.

‘In 2021, 2023 and 2025 I mostly ran the 1500 because I was thinking about other championships and trying not to do too much at nationals.

‘This year I wanted to run the 5k for two reasons. One was to practise that kind of race for the Europeans, but at the same time you want to win a national title as well. You can’t take them for granted. They’re hard to come by.

‘Even if you take everything else out of it – the confidence it gives you and all that – it’s still a massive achievement in itself.

‘When you’re in my position and you run a couple of different distances, sometimes you’re picking different events because you’re trying to challenge yourself or get a certain stimulus out of it.

‘But there’s a lot to be said for lining up and saying, “I want to be national champion this year.”

‘So I definitely went in with that mindset as well. When the wind was as bad as it was, I was thinking that, amongst all this trying to get different stimuli and everything else, I still need to make sure I win because that’s the goal here.

‘Especially now because the crowds at the national championships have been getting bigger and bigger over the last few years. There’s such a good atmosphere and you're racing in front of friends and family. It’s just a really good buzz to win it.’

Darragh McElhinney has now won three men's 5000m national titles. (Photo: Tyler Miller/Sportsfile)

McElhinney admits the race didn’t play out how he had envisaged, but will take encouragement from his ability to react, especially when Jack O'Leary (Mullingar Harriers AC) hit the front early and forced the pace. That wasn’t in McElhinney’s script. With Brian Fay also in the race, there were threats and challenges everywhere, but the West Cork man took it all in his stride.

‘It definitely wasn’t what I had in mind,’ he says.

‘The couple of weeks leading into it, my plan was to simulate what a typical championship 5k at the Europeans is like, with a hard last mile or last 1200 metres.

‘Initially, my plan was to sit in the pack and then, with either four or three laps to go, try and wind it up. I’d been doing quite a lot of that in training, so I felt ready to do that.

‘But then, a couple of days beforehand, and especially on the day, the weather definitely took a turn. Obviously the weather’s been so good and the wind’s been pretty low, so it’s been a lot easier to train. I was jogging on the morning of the race and the wind was so gusty. I was thinking, “I don't really know if this is going to be my best bet, to put myself out there with four laps to go on my own and try to make it really hard for everyone.”

‘So, to be honest, I was a little bit on the fence. Even on the start line, I was still thinking, “I'm just going to see what way the race pans out for the first few laps. If I'm feeling good with three or four laps to go, I'll do that. But if not, I’m not going to panic and I'll just treat it like a normal race, sit in for as long as possible.”

‘But all of that fairly went out the window after about 300 metres when Jack went to the front.’

Fiona Everard (Bandon AC) in action in the women's 5000m where she won a silver medal. (Photo: Tyler Miller/Sportsfile)

With O’Leary racing off, McElhinney covered the move, closing him down. He expected Brian Fay to go with him, but he didn’t.

‘He’s obviously got a really good kick and he’s the national record holder, so he was definitely the one I was most concerned about before the race,’ he says.

Nicola Tuthill defended her women's hammer throw title. (Photo: Tyler Miller/Sportsfile)

‘But when it got to the stage where I caught Jack, with about seven laps to go, and we had a bit of a gap, I actually felt really good. I was like, “I don't really want to shut it down now and let anyone back into the race. I may as well try and keep it going.”

‘So I went to the front between seven laps to go and five laps to go and drove it on to keep the gap there. Then I let Jack back in front with five laps to go and he drove it on for two laps. Then I decided to go back to my initial plan with three laps to go and pick it up.

‘I think, in hindsight, the race had probably been fast enough at that point that I was a bit more tired than I realised. When I went to the front, I ran hard for a lap and opened up my gap. Then, with two laps to go, I realised I was actually fairly tired. I'd already had a pretty hard race, doing a lot of it solo and in those conditions.

‘The last two laps, I was just trying to make sure I didn't blow up and hold on to my lead.

‘But it was enjoyable. It was something so different. You're kind of used to these tactical 5ks where you're jogging around for 11 laps and then it all blows up, whereas this was the complete opposite. I ran most of the race on my own, which definitely wasn't what I was expecting when I was standing on the start line. I just tried to adapt to whatever happened.’

McElhinney crossed the line 13:31.71, with O'Leary in second (13:35.54), while Fay took the bronze medal in 13:45.29.

Next up is the Europeans for McElhinney, who will be joined by Kilbrittain’s Nicola Tuthill after she defended her women’s hammer throw title on Sunday.

Aoife Callan (Bandon AC) in action in the women's long jump at the 123.ie National Senior Track & Field Championships 2026 at Morton Stadium in Dublin. Aoife set a new personal best of 5.17 metres. (Photo: Tyler Miller/Sportsfile)

The UCD AC athlete’s best effort of 70.16m was enough to see her win her fourth senior title in a row, and fifth in total. Margaret Hayden (Tallaght AC) was almost seven metres behind in silver position, 63.61m.

There were also silver medals for two Bandon AC athletes. Defending national 1500m champion Laura Nicholson clocked 4:08.27 to claim silver on Sunday, finishing behind Sophie O’Sullivan (Ballymore Cobh AC) who won in a championship record time of 4:05.62, beating her mother Sonia’s record that had stood since 1995. Nicholson had been hoping to go under 4:07 to qualify for the Europeans, but came up short.

Fiona Everard, a two-time national senior cross-country champion, finished second in the women’s 5000m, in a personal best time of 15:30.34. The race was won by Niamh Allen (Leevale AC) who defended her title in style, producing a personal best of 15:26.54. Danielle Donegan (Tullamore Harriers AC) raced to the bronze in 15:50.68.