The Airtricity Dublin Marathon had its first double Irish winners since 1993 with Sean Hehir (Rathfarnham WSAF) and Maria McCambridge (Dundrum South Dublin) taking the honours today. Hehir, who was the second Irishman home last year, ran a superb race to take the title. Challenged all the way by marathon debutant Joe Sweeney (Dundrum South Dublin), there was little between the two until Mile 14, when Sweeney pulled into a narrow lead. Hehir kept in touch however, and overtook Sweeney at Mile 19. From then on he maintained a comfortable gap going on to win in 2:18:19.
The women’s race was also a close contest between defending champion McCambridge and Leevale AC’s Claire McCarthy. Like Sweeney, McCarthy pulled ahead at around Mile 18, but McCambridge pulled it back to win with 36 seconds to spare, with her husband Gary Crossan crossing the line less than a minute later.
McCambridge is the first person (male or female) to win every race in the Airtricity Dublin Race Series, winning the 5mile, 10k, 10 Mile, Half Marathon and now the Dublin Marathon this year.
To celebrate the first Irish Double Win in 20 years, Airtricity presented both winners with two years’ Free Energy and they also received a brand new Renault Fluence ZE electric car, courtesy of associate sponsors Renault.
Maeve Barry, from Ennis, had an added bonus when she crossed the line in 4:49:36 as the announcer informed her that she had also won a brand new Renault Fluence ZE electric car as part of a random draw between all entrants in Race Series and marathon for a third car provided by Renault.
Paul Hannan took his 4th Dublin Marathon Wheelchair title with a comfortable win over Jim Corbett, his last win was in 2011.
Over 14,600 entered today’s Dublin Marathon, the 34th running of the event.
Wheelchair Top 3
Paul Hannan 2:34:48
Jim Corbett 2:37:27
Patrick Monahan 2:38:54
Top 3 Women
Maria McCambridge (DSD) 2:38:51
Claire McCarthy (Leevale AC) 2:39:37
Pauline Curley (Tullamore Harriers) 2:42:58
Top 3 Men
Sean Hehir (Rathfarnham WSAF) 2:18:19
Joe Sweeney (DSD) 2:19:26
Sergiu Ciobanu (Clonliffe) 2:22:02