Five members of the local Blayney Rockets club competed in the BMW Berlin Marathon on Sunday 24th September 2023, 49 years of the race.
The five members namely Derek Callan, Alan Clarke, Aidan Campbell, Brendan Murphy and Olly Hughes travelled to Berlin to compete in the grueling 26.2-mile race. While at the marathon the athletes met up with Cavan athlete Catherina McKiernan who was an honorary guest at the event as an inductee into the Hall of Fame for her victory in the event in 1977. Catherina won the women’s competition in a time of 2:23.44. She improved the Berlin course record by a minute and a half, broke the Irish record by almost four and a half minutes, was the then fastest debut in women’s marathon running – and eighth fastest of all time.
