Mayo man's link to another slice of sporting history
Daniel Kilgallon, extreme right, with the Irish team he coached to the Irish 4x100m relay record in Geneva.
Athletics: These are exciting times in Irish athletics across a range of disciplines but perhaps none more so than sprinting – and Mayo native Daniel Kilgallon is at the total forefront of this exciting revolution.
History was made at the World Athletics Meet in Geneva, Switzerland last Saturday when the Irish men’s 4x100m relay team broke the Irish record which had stood for some 25 years. Daniel Kilgallon has been coaching the quartet since 2022 and in something of a milestone moment for the Ballina native, it was the ninth key Irish sprint records he has coached, all of which are still live and active.
“Records are there to be broken and some will be broken soon no doubt, but it’s nice for now to consider what has been achieved,” Daniel told the this week.
His successful 4x100m relay team consisted of Michael Farrelly, Bori Akinola, Marcus Lawlor and Israel Olatunde. Their new record time of 38.92 seconds eclipsed the 39.26 that was set by John McAdorey, Gary Ryan, Tom Comyns and Paul Brizzel at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
Israel Olatunde is arguably the best known of that sprint team. Last August, he relocated to Florida to join the Adidas professional sprints group where he now trains with Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles. For the previous five years he was coached by Daniel Kilgallon and the very last thing he did before departing for the USA was set a new Irish 100m record time of 10.12s in London.
“It was nice to link up and collaborate with him again last week to achieve the one senior record we were targeting and missing from our time working together,” admitted Daniel, who also helped Israel break the Irish 60m senior record in 2023 in a time of 6.57. Both his 100m and 60m times are also U23 national records given his age at the time, while Daniel also coached Israel to break the U20 60m record in 2021 in 6.73.
The pair were also central to setting the U23 men’s 4x100m relay record in 2023 when Israel was joined by Gabriel Kehinde, Runo Ayavoro and Colin Doyle on the team.
An even bigger name at present however, is Rhasidat Adeleke who of course moved from Dublin to the USA a couple of years before Olatunde on a university scholarship and is now one of the top 200m and 400m sprinters on the planet.
“I am pleased also to have played a part in her development as an athlete too,” says Daniel Kilgallon who coached Adeleke before her departure. She now holds all Irish senior and U23 individual records from 60m up to 400m.
Added to Daniel Kilgallon’s roll of honour are the Irish U20 men’s 4x100m record, set in 2018 by David McDonald, Aaron Sexton, Jack Dempsey and David Murphy in Germany, and the IUAA men’s 4x100m record which was smashed by the DCU team of Michael Farrelly, Mark Smyth, Charles Okafor and Paul McDermott in 2022.
