The Irish team finished in fifth place in the 2013 edition of the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, USA on Saturday, 27th of April. Paul Robinson (St Coca’s AC), Brian Gregan (Clonliffe Harriers AC), Mark English (UCD AC) and Ciaran O’Lionaird (Leevale AC) combined to record a time of 9:24.10 for the Distance Medley Relay event.

The splits for the four athletes were Robinson (1200m :2:52.8), Gregan (400m: 45.9), English (800m: 1:46.7) and O’Lionaird (1600m: 3:58.7). The Irish quartet was up against teams from Kenya, Ethiopia, USA, Canada, UK, Morocco and Australia.

Ciaran O’Lionard began the anchor leg in fifth position chasing the USA blue team who were been anchored by legendary middle-distance runner Bernard Lagat. On the third lap O’Lionaird passed Lagat to move Ireland into fourth position. However Lagat responded and moved the USA blue team back into fourth over the final circuit. Ciaran stuck to his task and crossed the line in fifth place in a time of 9:24.10, to cap off a fine performance by all four Irish athletes.