EOIN O’FLYNN made it a debut to remember for Leamington Cycling and Athletics Club after producing one of his best performances at the Amsterdam Marathon.
The Irishman travelled across the English Channel to Holland on Sunday and ran an excellent, well-judged pace in what was his first ever marathon.
His time of 2:43.35 was enough to finish 114th overall out of over 12,000 runners in cold and wet conditions across the 26.2 miles.
O’Flynn, an accomplished triathlete who has competed for his native Ireland, spent the past four months focusing on his running to follow a strict training schedule with the aim of breaking 2 hours and 45 minutes.
Much of his training was done alone but he used his training group with Leamington at the Edmonscote track to sharpen up with interval work in order to maintain his speed.
Having come off the back of an excellent fifth place in the Kenilworth Half Marathon, O’Flynn improved this by a minute three weeks later at the Nottingham Hal Marathon where he clocked 77:05.
In Amsterdam, O’Flynn ran a steady race going through half way in 81.23 but was feeling the pace towards the end. Feeling cold due to the wet conditions, O’Flynn managed to launch a sprint in the closing stages to easily beat his target time.
He will now ease back on his training to aid his recovery and his focus now turns to the Birmingham League.
The overall winner of the race was Bernard Kipyego of Kenya who retained his title to finish in 2:06:19.
Kenilworth Runners’ Elizabeth Keell took part in the Amsterdam Half Marathon event on the same day and finished in a time of 1:50.45.
