This year, the IAU European Championship 50k will be held in the city of Sotillo de la Adrada, Avila. IAU European championships
The extensive run will take place on October 8th, 2022 with a total of 30 countries participating. The run will be organized by RFEA (Spanish Athletics Federation), Diputacion de Avila, Sotillo de la Adrada Town Council and Ecodeporte Sports Club. Ireland has two special women racing in this year’s championship- Catriona Jennings and Sorcha Loughnane.
Catriona Jennings is one of the most decorated women runners in Ireland. In 2019, she won Athletics Ireland Ultra Athlete of the Year. Jennings currently holds the Irish 50k record for 3:19:49 that she ran at the IAU European Championships in 2019. She also holds the Irish 100k record for 100k at 7:43:01.
Sorcha Loughnane has just won the Irish 50k championships and was less than a minute away from breaking Jennings' record. Loughnane runs for the team Donore Harriers with her coach, Gary O’Hanlon. In June, she just competed in the Cork City marathon and placed second with a time of 2:45:12. Loughnane does not prefer to travel for races because she has two children.
“Like a lot of Irish people, I grew up admiring world class Irish runners like Sonia O’Sullivan and Eamonn Coughlan, but it’s probably coaches, clubmates and my training partners that I tend to be inspired by. I’m thinking of my own teammate Ide Nic Dhomhnaill or Ann Marie McGlynn or Fionnuala McCormack - or internationally Faith Kipyegon, Edna Kiplagat, Keira D’Amato”
There will be an OPEN competition at the same time as the IAU European championship race. This will be a great opportunity for the general public to bump elbows with the most elite runners in Europe and see how well they measure up to some of the greats.
Throughout the race, the stable group of front runners included Rebecca Bunting, Alison Lavender, Sally O’Gorman, Dominika Stelmach, Yesica Mas Castany, Pilar Rubio Sanchez and Ireland’s very own, Catriona Jennings. In the last 10km of the race, there was finally a gap between Jennings, Lavender, Bunting, O’Gorman and Stelmach. In the end, Catriona Jennings pulled through and had enough energy to win the 1st European Championships.
Ireland has very strong runners representing them with Jennings winning first place and Loughnane not far behind finishing at 6th place.
