MARK KENNEALLY’S OLYMPIC debut ended in disappointment at the end of a gruelling men’s marathon in London.
Sunday’s 26.2-miler was only the third time that Kenneally has competed over the marathon distance but the Celbridge runner trailed off in the closing stages to finish 57th.
Kenneally’s time of 2:21:23 was seven minutes slower than the personal best he ran in Amsterdam last October to qualify for the Olympics and more than 13 minutes behind gold medal winner Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda (2:08:01).
Abel Kirui chased home Kiprotich to take silver in 2:08:27 while his Kenyan team-mate Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich finished a minute back in third (2:09:37).
“Have been off the radar for the last 3 weeks,” Kenneally tweeted afterwards. “Just want to say thanks to everyone for the best wishes. Was tough out there today.”
“Am disappointed with my performance but I’ll pick myself up and move onto the next one,” the 31-year-old physiotherapist added. “Keep trying to improve, put right in Rio.”
Only his third!! Clearly you’ve never run a marathon John. And at the speed that these lads run in I have nothing but respect for these athletes for just finishing the race!! Sit down, your negative comments are both unwanted and uncalled for.
John, with all your bitching and moaning can i ask have you ever run a marathon?
If you did (which i doubt) can I ask did you even do it in under 2:30…no? thought not, you haven’t a clue what your talking about.
He came 57th, that puts him ahead of a good few billion people including your lazy, complaining ass.
Your nothing but another couch potato critic,
Jaysis, the bitterness on here. Knew Mark a few years back and the training that lad put in was immense, used to see him out running every single day and in the gym every day as well. Who cares where he came? 57th best male marathon runner in the world, think he solidly beat about 7 billion people there :)
And that is standard training for every other athlete it’s doing that bit extra that will help ya do better than the rest of the field which should be cheered and rewarded
Apart from Rob Heffernan ,our track and field athletes were worse than disappointing. Very few PB’s,not even many SB’s. Pole vaulter never even registered a single jump,The 4×400 ladies relay team gave an interview after there poor race,not even a hint of disappointment in their voices ??
4*400 ladies were great, what race were you watching?
His third marathon? Is that the requirement to be an ‘elite’ athlete in Ireland these days?
number of marathons has nothing to.do with it, its all about qualifying times…..which he had. we he had.
I find it amusing that so many couch potato critics are so quick to judge so many athletes but yet they know nothing of the work, pain and training involved
In 1984 John Treacy came 2nd in the Olympic marathon in Los Angeles, this is generally regarded as Ireland’s greatest ever Olympic achievement considering the level of competition he faced. This was John Treacy’s FIRST marathon. The fact that Mark Kennealy had only run two marathons prior to this is a non issue.
31 years old ! Where are all our other marathon runners ? We could have sent 3.
Much as I hate to say it, the whole pc parent brigade who want to give medals to all the school children for taking part in a race on sports day are the start of our problems in this country. It may sound harsh but if we want to start creating better athletes it needs to start at a young age and that means at school level. Most young kids couldn’t care less whether they won or lost a race but if “my little johnny” doesn’t get a medal then it’s just not fair according to the parents. And yes, I have plenty of experience with this kind of outlook
Yes and no – at some stage you have to reward only success. But before you get to that point, you have to encourage kids to try sport, enjoy it and not to give up because they are made to feel like losers from an early age, because they didn’t get one of the top 3 places.
The problem is with the PE program in schools, kids never see a shotput, javelin or high jump mat. never try handball, volleyball ect. the list goes on
Agreed, Gerard; I went to St. Fintans Primary school and then St. Fintans Secondary – we only ever played basketball and soccer during PE – that was it. We messed around with a parachute a few times in primary, and there was 1 relay race in secondary. Seriously – the lack of variety was shocking.
Only 15 Europeans qualified to run that marathon so a great achievement to be there. The size of the grants athletes get are small and only a tiny drop in the ocean of our debt. The Olympic ethos is ‘it’s the taking part’
So everyone should take part and everyone should be given a medal with such a small pot of money to be spent the Irish should pick there sports they are going to do well in
57th ! Dissapoinnted ! Bit of an understatement , do the right thing cancel the trip to rio and give some new blood a chance ,
You clearly have no understanding of how qualifications for the Olympics work,
Yet another couch potato critic,
Considering only 1 personal best came on that course.
Coupled with the fact that 1 of the favorites from Kenya was carted off to receive medical attention never completing the race shows what a grueling course it was.
He was the only Irish male to qualify, but far from the only male to try. Not only that, he reached the A standard.
If there was new blood there were 2 more places on offer.
Kenneally works full time as a physiotherapist and is also currently in the middle of a PHD in exercise physiology. This appears to be a subject which some of you seem to be completely ignorant towards.
Having spent a week in London, I can say I was proud to be Irish. However, I’m embarrassed to read some of those derogatory ill informed posts from fellow Irish people.
If you want to make a comparison to Team GB, investigate it. There was huge funding pumped in, and maybe you could learn a lesson from them-Win, lose or draw they were 110% behind their athletes, not begrudging.
Well were proud of u my daughter aged 8 ( next Thursday ) has spent d last two weeks waiting on u to run we live in Celbridge and u have inspired my kids so thank you for that u did Celbridge proud there will b a waiting list to join the athletic club