The Penn Relays will play host to the 14th edition of USA vs. The World relays on Saturday, April 27th. There is a high quality Irish team set to compete in the Penn Relays in the exciting men’s Distance Medley Relay (DMR) event.
The Irish DMR team consists of Olympian Ciaran O’Lionaird (Leevale AC) who will be running the Mile leg. The US-based athlete has shown great form throughout the 2013 indoor season after bringing home the bronze medal in the 3000m at the European Indoor Championships.
Paul Robinson (St. Cocas), fresh from comfortably winning the SPAR Great Ireland Mile on April 14th and just recently returned from a spell of training in Australia, will be running the 1200m leg as part of the DMR team.
World Junior Finalist, World Youth Olympian and Irish Junior Record holder Mark English (UCD AC) will be running the 800m leg and has shown he is coming into superb form after cruising to victory in the Irish Intervarsity Championships 400m in a personal best time of 47.56 seconds.
Clonliffe AC’s Brian Gregan who placed sixth at the European Athletics Championships in Helsinki last summer will be taking the 400m leg. Gregan showed early dominance during the indoor season and held the fastest 2013 indoor 400m time in Europe for a number of weeks.
The Irish team will be up against some of the best athletes in the world racing teams from Canada, the UK, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco and two teams from the USA. Team USA swept the 2012 USA vs. The World relays for the first time in history last year and will be aiming to defend their dominance against the stellar international field. The Irish DMR teams collectively have numerous Irish records to their names and are sure to put up a good fight against their international rivals.
