Runners from last year’s Energia 24 Hour Race.
Five Wicklow runners will compete in this year’s Energia 24-Hour race on the Victoria Park Track in East Belfast on Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th June. The Energia 24-hour race is the endurance race where competitors run as many laps of the 400m race track as they can in 24 hours.
DON HANNON, 43, from Roundwood, Wicklow will be competing. The experienced ultra runner and organiser who ran over 200 kms (124 miles) last year for 6th place at Energia24 has a dilemma. He will enter hospital the week after the race to have part of his liver removed. It is to help his sister who has a rare liver disease. In the week leading up to Energia 24 he will undergo a battery of tests. He badly wants to race but his priorities lie elsewhere.
AMY MASNER, 24, from Arklow, Wicklow will also be running. Amy first came to prominence in the 2015 Energia24 when she won the 12-hour race in an all-corners record distance of 117 kms (73 miles). Then over the winter in Finland she ran an eye-popping 218kms (135 miles) in a 24-hour race to finish 2nd. That was in Canadian colours, but, through residency, she has now declared for Ireland. Here she runs the 100k as she prepares for the European 24-Hour Championships in France in October.
Neil Smith from Blessington and Don Hannon and TJ Keeley from Trailheads Running Club in Roundwood will also be competing.
Race Director Ed Smith says “After 6 years at the Mary Peters’ track, Energia24 moves to a 1.7km circuit in Victoria Park in east Belfast in search of more space. It’s a ‘dress rehearsal’ for the premier event in the sport, the 24-Hr World Championships. In anticipation of that, the 24-entry list has doubled from last year to just under 100 with the 12-hour, 100k and relays also well supported.
“The competitors will represent 13 nations, 25 Irish counties and the best represented club will be Dublin Bay Runners. Runners from Cavan, Clare, Cork, Donegal, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Limerick, Louth, Mayo, Meath, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo, Offally, Westmeath, Wicklow and Wexford will all be competing in this year’s event. A wide range of international runner will also be competing, with runners from England, The Netherlaneds, Norway, Scotlamd, entered into this year’s race.”
“The top of the leaderboard could have a familiar look to it. National 24-hr champion Eoin Keith, 47, from Cork has swept all before him this year winning the 431km Montane Spine Race across the Pennines at the start of the year in spectacular fashion smashing the coursed record by 15 hours.”
“Three-time winner John O’Regan, 46, from Kildare who took time out last year to guide blind runner Sinead Kane; and Belfast’s Madrid-based Eddie Gallen, 53, will be pushing Eoin hard. Eddie set a new Irish 12-hour record in Barcelona in December. Remarkably, this will be his 32nd 24-hour race.”
“Again the pretenders will be snapping at their heels: Wexford’s James Whitty, 51, and Polish athlete Thomas Klimas, 39, who lives in Limerick. They finished 4th and 5th respectively last year.”
Smith says: “It is great to have the use of the upgraded Victoria Park facility and with it the support of Belfast City Council alongside our title sponsor Energia, who have been with us from the start when we had 18 entries, Pure Running, Water Within, the international Association of Ultra Runners and the athletics federations north and south.”
Title sponsors Energia, the leading gas and electricity suppliers, have backed the 24-hour race from day one.
Michael Ringland, Marketing Manager, Energia said: “We hope our sponsorship helps to energise this year’s fantastic event once more. It really is completely different from anything out there on the Irish sporting calendar. Best of luck to all the competitors.”
The event carries a Silver Label from the World Governing Body and is a grant-aided by Belfast City Council and supported by Pure Running.
