IRELAND’S EVA HUTCHINSON clocked a personal best of 2:35:33 in this morning’s Houston Marathon, a time nearly 90 seconds inside the Olympic A qualification standard of 2:37:00.
The result means that the cross country veteran and current National Half Marathon champion will join her Dundrum South Dublin Athletic Club teammate Linda Byrne in the starting line-up for the Women’s Marathon at this summer’s Olympic Games in London.
Byrne previously achieved the qualification standard on home soil, running 2:36:21 at this year’s Dublin marathon.
Elsewhere, European Cross Country Champion Fionnuala Britton finished eighth at the Internacional de Itálica, an IAAF-sanctioned event in Sevilla, Spain.
Well done
great achievement
Fair play onwards and upwards
This athlete is brilliant but under -appreciated. Without wishing to be critical of the winner, why this girl didn’t get Sportsperson of the year, I don’t know. Surely sitting on a horse isn’t quite as demanding as the training and performance demands of boxing? And…you haven’t a horse to help you win, you’re on your own. To give an award to a jockey insults the horses they rode! I really hope that she gets gold in the Olympics…..she really deserves it.