Valencia 10k 2026 (11th Jan)

The Valencia 10k on Sunday morning 11th January attracted a huge entry of over 16,000 including three in-form athletes from Mullingar Harriers. Given their class, the three were given elite numbers, so avoided the scrum at the start, critical in a race that attracts top quality athletes. The headline from an Irish perspective was Efrem Gidey’s excellent twelfth place finish in 27:38, a new Irish record for 10k, five seconds off his previous best set in the same race last year.

The race won by Andreas Almgren (Sweden) in a European record time of 26:44, so it was a very fast course. Taking full advantage of the fast course and top quality opposition, the Mullingar trio was led home by Jack O’Leary in 27:41, a new personal best by a whopping 32 seconds, also inside the previous Irish record, followed by Cormac Dalton in 28:03, also a personal best, and the trio was completed by Jamie Battle pleased with his finish time of 28:49. Jack’s time is inside the qualification standard for the European T&F in Birmingham, England in August and there’s little doubt Cormac will close in that time too very soon. These are fantastic performances and a great start to 2026 [GD].