LOCAL mountain runners Zak Hanna (Newcastle AC) and Aaron McGrady (East Down AC) will represent Ireland in the uphill race at the 2026 European Athletics Off-Road Championships in Slovenia this summer.
The two athletes travelled down to Wicklow on Friday past to compete in the NIMRA Uphill Running Trial, which is used to select the teams for these championships.
Both are no stranger to the Irish set-up, with Dromara runner Hanna’s best result in the European Championships coming in 2022 when he finished fourth overall, in the same year he finished fifth in the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
McGrady made his Irish debut in Innsbruck, Austria, at the 2023 World Mountain and Trail Running Championships, and has gone onto make the Ireland team every year since then, going from strength to strength.
Over an uphill course of 6.5km with 700m of climbing, with a summit finish at the top of Djouce in the Wicklow Mountains, it was Hanna, who completes professionally for New Balance and is fresh from his season opening victory in the first round of the Skyrunning VK World Cup in Madeira, who won the race ahead of McGrady, who came home in second place.
It was still an excellent result for Downpatrick native McGrady who has been in flying form over 5km recently after setting a PB of 14:35 in London last weekend.
The European Off-Road Championships takes place on 5 June in Kamnik, Slovenia over an uphill course of 9km with a 1,250m vertical climb, and will see Europe’s best mountain runners compete for podium spots.
