Since Fearghal Curtin’s final time wearing the blue and gold of Charleston Southern in the spring of 2022, he has continued with his running career. Now, at the age of 27, he is becoming one of the top European distance runners in the world.
This past weekend, he set the new Irish national record at the Gyeongju International Marathon in South Korea while also winning the race. This marked just the second marathon of his career with him crossing the line with a time of 2:07.54, nearly two full minutes under the previous national record which was held by Peter Lynch at the Dusseldorf Marathon this past April. This becomes the sixth time that the record has been broken in the past 45 years with this being the third time to happen in the past 12 months.
By Curtin winning the race, he also is the first winner of the elite men’s race in its history to not be from a country in Africa. He won the event by nearly three minutes, beating out Antenayehu Dagnachew from Ethiopia (2:10.33) and Stanley Bett of Kenya (2:11.07). The time that Curtin ran would have won gold at all but the 2008 and 2024 Olympics.
Earlier this year, Curtin also broke the half marathon record for Ireland with a time of 60:22. This happened at the Copenhagen Half Marathon in mid-September with him claiming eighth in the field.
Curtin spent five seasons with Charleston Southern and went on to have a decorated career with the Buccaneers that began in 2017. He was a three-time All-Conference honoree for outdoor track & field and a two-time All-Conference honoree for cross country. In the fall of 2021, he was Championship runner-up to Athanas Kioko who went on to earn All-American status that season. He ended his career with a 20th-overall finish in the 10K at the 2022 NCAA Championship to earn Third-Team All-American accolades. He still is school record holder for both the outdoor 5K and 10K and has those times within the top four in conference history.
Later this year, Curtin is scheduled to compete in the Singapore Marathon on December 7 as he is gearing up for a potential run to compete in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.