John Byrne being presented with the title by Anthony Lee, event orgainiser, at DondeaMAYO Athletic Club’s John Byrne wrote another exciting chapter in his sporting career on Saturday when he was crowned Irish 50k champion.

The Straide runner saw off the challenge of 64 other brave souls at the Donadea 50k in Co. Kildare, which also doubled as the Irish 50k championship.

The event, raced along forest trails within Donadea Forest Park, saw a top class field from Irish ultra running on the start line, and from the off the main contenders pushed the pace along at the head of the field.

John Byrne and Daniel Doherty were together in front, with Keith Whyte, John O’Regan, Paul Tierney, Eoin Keith, Jim McCormack and a couple of late entries, Barry Minnock (a 2.20 marathoner) and Dave Simpson all well in touch.

It was soon evident that Byrne was going well in the lead, consistently ticking off laps at six-minute mile pace.

Last year’s winner, Keith Whyte, dropped out at about 20k. Up front, Byrne, Minnock and Simpson all looked strong as they pushed on.

Although Minnock went to the front briefly at half way, Byrne regained the lead with little effort and continued at a steady pace. He passed the marathon mark (42.5k) at 2.37.40. In the final laps he stretched the gap and cruised to victory in 3.07.54 – 11 minutes better than his 50k debut in Galway in 2010.

Barry Minnock was second on 3.10.43 and Dave Simpson finished third on 3.12.12.

Byrne was delighted he gave ultra another go this year and took a few major scalps at Donadea along the way.

Having been disappointed with his 100k run in Holland last September, this victory more than makes up for it.

Byrne is on the Irish team for the 2012 World 100k Championships in Italy in April and this performance will be a major boost of confidence ahead of that formidable task.

He is the current Irish 100k champion, having lifted the title for the first time last March in Perth, Australia, in an event that doubled as the national championships.

In the process, he became the second fastest Irishman in history over this distance.

On that occasion, Byrne led the Irish team to a cumulative time of 21:58:01 – a new Irish team record – eclipsing the record set by the Irish team that finished fifth at the European 100k championships in 2007.