European Masters Athletics Championships Non Stadia Galway 2028

Eighteen Irish athletes are on their way to Romania.

The European Masters Off-Road Running Championships run in Rasnov Medieval Run - European Masters Off-Road Running Championships 2026 from 10 to 13 September — the last European masters championship of 2026, and not a gentle one. Three races: a 3.7km vertical run, a 12km classic up-and-down, and a 40km long distance.

Going for Ireland:

Esme Alexander · Matthew Alexander · Peter Bell · Gerry Brady · Aengus Burke · Graham Bushe · Ian Conroy · Des Crowe · David Dinsmore · Paula Donnellan Walsh · Paul Flynn · Joe Gough · Philip Goss · Mike Kelly · James Kevan · Peter McEvoy · Stephen Montgomery · Ger O'Toole

A word for Graham Bushe and Paul Flynn, both M55, who have entered all three races — and who are Ireland's only two starters in the 40km.

Off-road running is the closest discipline there is to our own non-stadia programme, so we will be watching this one closely.

Best of luck to all eighteen. Enjoy the mountain. 🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪

Athletics Ireland Irish Masters Athletics (Official site)

Rasnov Medieval Run - European Masters Off-Road Running Championships 2026

Korea is eight hours ahead of Ireland.

You fly the guts of a day to get there. You arrive with your body convinced it's the middle of the night. Then you race in conditions that never dropped below 28 degrees, humidity above 80%, against the best in the world in your age group.

Twenty-eight Irish athletes did that in Daegu over the last fortnight, taking time out of work and away from their families to be there. Most of them knew before they got on the plane that they wouldn't be on a podium. They went anyway, and they left everything out there.

Kevin Byrne got five events into an M55 decathlon before it beat him — five more than most of us will ever attempt. William Paiva did a decathlon and a throws pentathlon in the same week. Stephen Hunter took steeplechase bronze on day one and then raced the 10km, the half marathon and the cross country. Ian Egan travelled as team physio and raced three times himself. Anne Gormley managed the whole team and still went out and walked 5000m.

And yes — seventeen medals. Edel Maguire with four, and a European Record in the W65 400m. Sean McMullin winning every M80 walk on the programme at eighty. John MacDermott, decathlon champion at eighty-one.🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪

But look at the first photo: the cross-country squad after the 8km. Nine people who'd just run themselves into the ground, shoulder to shoulder, grinning. And the second — the last Irish race of the whole championships, the M55 4x400m, lane eight, seventh of seven, finishing the job and then standing on the blue track with the tricolour.

They were cheered on by their team managers and by team mates who'd already finished their own events. And with the schedule running morning to night across the city, some raced with nobody there at all — and got the job done anyway.

That's the sport. Inspiration everywhere, not just on the podium.

We host Europe's masters in Galway in May 2028. We'll be ready.

World Masters Athletics Championships Daegu 2026 EMACI Galway City Council Athletics Ireland

That's a wrap on Daegu.

Our last race of World Masters Athletics Championships Daegu 2026— the M55 4x400m, out in lane eight on the final afternoon, finishing the job.

Thirteen days, more than 7,000 athletes, 106 countries. To the organising committee, the officials, and the volunteers who stood out on the course in the heat and still had a smile and an answer for everyone who asked: go raibh maith agaibh. 🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪 You set a standard.

Members of the Galway 2028 committee were here for the whole championships, competing and taking notes. We host the European Masters Athletics Championships Non Stadia Galway 2028 in Galway in May 2028, and we'll be borrowing plenty of what we saw in Korea.

Safe home to everyone travelling.


Athletics Ireland EMACI

Two more golds on the final Wednesday at World Masters Athletics Championships Daegu 2026

Edel Maguire won the W65 400m in 1:07.78 — a Championship Record, and her fourth medal of these championships. She had qualified second in her semi the day before in 1:15.47. In the final she took nearly eight seconds off it. 🏆

Bronze over 100m. Silver over 200m. Gold in the high jump. Gold over 400m. One of every colour, on the track and in the field.🥇🥇🥈🥉

And Sean McMullin completed a clean sweep of the M80 race walks — 5000m on the track, 10km and 20km on the road. Three races, three world titles, at eighty.🏆🥇🥇🥇

Ireland finishes on seventeen medals from a team of twenty-eight.🇮🇪🇮🇪

Comhghairdeas to you both.

EMACI

Two world titles. Eighty-one years of age. 🥇🥇

John MacDermott has had some championships at World Masters Athletics Championships Daegu 2026

First the M80 decathlon — ten events across two days, 4878 points, and five of the ten disciplines won outright.

Then, a week later, gold in the 200m hurdles in 37.71.

And he isn't done.

Ten events in two days is a hard weekend at any age. Doing it at eighty-one, then coming back later in the week for a hurdles final, is something else entirely.

That's fourteen Irish medals now from a team of 28 — enough to place Ireland 23rd of the 106 countries competing here.

Congratulations John, from everyone involved with Galway 2028.

👉 galway2028.ie

Thirteen medals. Twenty-eight athletes. 🥇🥈🥉

Ireland's masters athletes have had a World Championships to remember at the World Masters Athletics Championships Daegu 2026 — five golds, four silvers and four bronzes.

Sean McMullin won the M80 10km walk, then went back out and won the 20km as well. Two world titles on the road, at eighty.

Edel Maguire has a full set: bronze over 100m, silver over 200m, gold in the high jump. Track and field, three colours, and the 400m still to come.

Rachel Murphy took gold in the W40 1500m and bronze in the 5000m. Brenda Gannon silver in the W50 20km walk. Lea Fulcher silver over 1500m. Pat Kelly silver in the W75 100m. John MacDermott gold in the M80 decathlon. Stephen Hunter bronze in the steeplechase. And bronze in the M65 relay for Shane Sheridan, Niall Kelly, Richard Phelan and Stephen Berkeley.

From thirty-five to eighty-one. That is masters athletics, and it is exactly what Galway will be welcoming in May 2028.

Comhghairdeas to every one of them.

👉 galway2028.ie

Athletics Ireland Galway City Council

We owe Stephen Hunter a mention. 🥉

On the opening morning at World Masters Athletics Championships Daegu 2026 — before most of us had properly arrived — he took bronze in the M45 3000m steeplechase in 11:27.98.

Ireland's first medal of these championships, and it went past us. Our mistake, and worth correcting.

Seven and a half laps, twenty-eight barriers, seven water jumps. The steeplechase asks you to run hard and then, twenty-eight times over, to stop thinking about how tired you are and clear something that will not move.

Congratulations Stephen — belatedly, and sincerely.

That makes seven Irish medals from a team of 28.

👉 galway2028.ie

BRONZE for Ireland in the M65 4x100m relay. 🥉

Shane Sheridan, Niall Kelly, Richard Phelan and Stephen Berkeley on the podium in Daegu this evening.

Individual medals reward a lifetime of your own training. A relay medal needs four people to get it right together — same evening, three baton changes, forty-odd seconds. Look at the faces and you'll know what it meant.

That's six medals now from a team of 28. Two golds, a silver and three bronze.

Congratulations lads, from everyone involved with Galway 2028.

👉 galway2028.ie

World Masters Athletics Championships Daegu 2026

And she's off. 🥉

Edel Maguire has taken bronze in the W65 100m in Daegu, running 14.51.

The Clonliffe Harriers sprinter arrived in Korea in serious form — five golds and a silver at the European Masters Indoors in Toruń earlier this year, and a 400m world record in her age category already to her name.

Athletics Ireland's preview of the 28-strong Irish team is well worth a read. And Edel may not be finished yet.

👉 https://www.athleticsireland.ie/irish-athletes-compete-at-world-masters-in-korea/

Irish Athletes compete at World Masters in Korea - Athletics Ireland A total of 28 Irish Masters athletes are set to compete at the World Masters Athletics Championships in Daegu, South Korea, which take place from August 22nd to September 3rd.

Three more medals for Ireland in World Masters Athletics Championships Daegu 2026.

Pat Kelly takes silver in the W75 100m, running 18.03.

Edel Maguire takes bronze in the W65 100m in 14.51.

And Rachel Murphy adds bronze in the W40 5000m in 19:38.78

— a very good morning's work.🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪

That's five Irish medals now at the World Masters Athletics Championships: two golds, a silver and two bronze, with a week of competition still to run.

Sprinters, distance runners, race walkers, a decathlete in his eighties, a sprinter in her seventies. That range is the whole point of masters athletics — and it's exactly what Galway will be welcoming in May 2028.

Congratulations to all three from everyone involved with Galway 2028. Keep them coming.

👉 galway2028.ie