The Irish team finished fifth with a time of 9 mins 24.10 secs in the distance medley relay at today’s Penn Relays in Philadelphia, USA.
Paul Robinson (St Coca’s ), Brian Gregan (Clonliffe Hrs), Mark English (UCD) and Ciaran O Lionaird (Leevale) were up against teams from Kenya, Ethiopia, USA, Canada, the UK, Morocco and Australia.
On the opening 1200m leg, Paul Robinson held on to fourth place, moving into third for the handover to Brian Gregan who would run the 400m leg. Gregan, avoiding the bumping and barging which saw the UK’s Martin Rooney take a tumble, passed on to Mark English for the 800m in fourth place.
At this stage, Ireland was still in contention for a top three place, along with the two US teams, Kenya and Ethiopia, and English passed the baton to Ciaran O Lionaird in fifth place.
On his anchor mile, O Lionaird chased down Bernard Lagat of the USA blue team passing him on the third of four laps. However Lagat moved back into fourth place on the final lap. Winning the race was the Ethiopian team in 9:16.34.
In the 5000m, Kevin Dooney of Raheny Shamrock finished 11th in the 5,000m in a personal best of 14.26.52.
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