Two of a kind – Westport twins on the rise

They are only 15 years of age but already Freya and Holly Renton are the talk of Irish athletics. They and their parents Bryan and Phillipa have shared their remarkable tale of achievement with Edwin McGreal.

You don’t need to be long in the company of young running sensations Freya and Holly Renton to start to see the secrets to their success.

Holly has medalled consistently at national and international level. In of itself, that is a remarkable achievement when judged on its own merits.

The trouble for Holly, as she stoically concedes, is that the person who nearly always beats her in those races just happens to be her twin sister Freya – winner of this year’s Western People Sports Stars Young Sportsperson award.

The twins are super competitive in events all over Ireland and beyond but the keenest rivalry lies between the walls of their home in Liscarney outside Westport.

So while they talk of dreams of European titles and the Olympics, their greatest wish is to trump each other.

“I try not to get beaten by Holly and she tries not to get beaten by me,” said Freya with a determined smile.

“We push each other on and motivate each other,” said Holly.

The level of competition is fierce yet the closeness and the bond they have with one another is extremely strong.

It is the friendliest of fierce rivalries that, both the girls and their parents Bryan and Phillipa agree, helps to drive them on.

Their talent is clear – no one succeeds at their level without serious natural ability. But plenty with talent fail too because they do not have the drive, the commitment and the focus. You can tell the Renton girls have all these qualities in spades and it is not from the wind they got it.

****** 

Bryan and Phillipa Renton met at Liverpool Harriers running club. Bryan is from Liverpool while Philipa is a native of Meath who always intended to move home to Ireland. It was a serendipitous short break in Mulranny that altered their course.

A cycle on the Great Western Greenway from Westport to Achill saw Bryan Renton fall in love with this part of the world and so in 2018 they were able to make Westport their home. Bryan, a doctor, got a post at Mayo University Hospital in Castlebar while Phillipa is the senior mental health pharmacist for Mayo. Bryan now works at University Hospital Galway.

When they moved to Westport, twins Freya and Holly had just turned eight and they together with younger siblings Jack and Aoife swapped life on the outskirts of Liverpool for the west of Ireland. The children were enrolled in the Gaelscoil in Westport and accompanying naíonra and before long, Bryan and Phillipa found Westport Athletic Club.

They knew by then their two eldest children were into running – ‘as soon as they could walk, they were chasing each other around the couch’ recalls Phillipa. The girls grew up watching their parents taking turns going out for runs, even when they had four kids under four.

But how good they could be did not become apparent until their first ever national final, the 2019 cross country in Dunboyne in Phillipa’s native Meath.

Phillipa, who coaches the girls together with renowned triathlete Hilary Hughes at Westport AC, thought it best to temper their expectations.

There were 180 competitors and they were competing out of their age group. Add in the fact that poor Freya had a black eye and could only see out of one eye after her toddler cousin threw a spoon at her the day before and being there at all was an achievement.

“I just wanted to protect her and you just tell her ‘you did great to get this far’ which was so true,” said Phillipa.

Even then, though, Freya had full belief in her own ability.

“I was so used to winning after the Mayos and Connachts that I just thought it was the same and I said I’d just try to win this one too. I managed to win it,” she said.

And following her in that day in fifth place was her twin sister Holly. The Renton twins had arrived and announced themselves in some style.

Since then they’ve knitted together success after success and Freya has smashed record after record. They won a national pairs title in Tullamore in 2020, which included long jump and 600 metres. At just 11, Freya set an incredible time of 17.42 in the Westport parkrun, considered at the time an unofficial world record for her age with her sister never too far behind.

They narrowed their focus shortly after to middle distance running and as the distances got longer as they got older, to 800m, 1,500 and 3,000m, both of them found themselves literally stretching the gap from many of their rivals.

Incredibly, Freya Renton has not been bested in any national cross country final at her age group or the age above her since her debut win in Dunboyne seven years ago.

Last year Freya claimed national track and field titles in both 1,500 and 3,000 metres with Holly picking up silver in the 1,500.

In cross country, currently her preferred discipline, Freya won the Under 16 National Cross Country Championships in November (with Holly taking bronze).

Outside of Ireland, Freya and Holly compete in the Celtic International Cross Country in London this coming weekend. That is an elite event with the top eight cross country runners in the age group from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales competing. It is the twins’ fifth time competing in an international event in cross country or on track. Freya has won the previous four while Holly medalled in three of them.

Last year, Freya took gold in the Schools International Athletics Board (SIAB, British Isles) Intermediate (Under 17) Cross Country and 3,000 metres track finals, winning the former by a staggering 23 seconds. Holly picked up bronze in the 3,000m final.

Freya found time too to win the Western People West of Ireland Mini Marathon in an incredible time of 35.59 even though that distance is beyond any she can compete in at her own age category.

Everywhere they go, success follows.

****** 

They grew up in a running house. While Phillipa was and is a keen runner, Bryan Renton is a serious competitor. He’s 47 and last year won the Westport 10k with a superb time of 34.56.

When he moved to Westport, he had stepped back from serious athletics, with a back injury a factor, but ferrying the girls to Mayo and Connacht championships and beyond lit a fuse in him and he took up competitive running again. Now, at Mayos and Connachts the girls compete in their categories and he takes part – and frequently wins – middle distance events at masters level.

The important question – are the girls faster than their Dad?

“I’ll let the girls answer that,” says Bryan with a smile.

“Dad is still winning,” concedes Holly.

“He doesn’t want me to beat him until I am 16 but I’m almost there,” said Freya. The twins turn 16 in March.

There is no chance of him taking it easy and they actually ended up in a race together last year. At the Connacht Indoors one of the organisers, for devilment, saw the potential to put them in the same race and the battlelines were drawn.

Freya did her best to use her Dad’s coaching to hold him off but he overtook her on the second last lap.

“A good few parents came up to me and said ‘why didn’t you let her win?’ And I said: ‘You don’t know my daughter, she would have killed me if I let her win!’ She wants me to give everything and she does the same,” he said.

Freya and Holly both played Gaelic football with Westport but had to step aside at Under 14 because of injuries that were impacting their running. Holly is quick to point out ‘I was better at Gaelic football’ with Freya ruefully shaking her head.

They miss Gaelic football but running is their first love.

“I love to run and love racing and representing Ireland, making new friends in running. And winning, as well!” said Freya.

“Probably the same,” added Holly. “Running makes me happy and I make loads of new friends in running competitions.” Their younger sister Aoife runs but their brother Jack does not, preferring team sports.

The twins train four times a week with hill and track sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays with Westport Athletic Club under the watchful eye of their Mum and Hilary Hughes (‘a great coach’ said Holly) and then road or trail runs at the weekend with their Dad if they’re not competing. They blend in swimming, indoor biking and pilates but are not lifting weights yet.

“You are always worried about injuries because injuries just derail so much so that’s why we try to be careful with them. Freya especially would want to run seven days a week and we’re always saying: ‘You’re not doing that because you’ll burn out and get injured’,” said Bryan.

Their talents do not begin and end with running. Both did remarkably well in their Junior Cert last year and want to be doctors when they grow up. Holly would like to be a paediatrician while Freya is leaning towards being a surgeon. They are accomplished musicians too, at Level 7 on the fiddle. They like hanging out with friends and Freya loves to kayak in the nearby Lough Moher. They will return from London next week to take part in their Transition Year musical, Legally Blond Jnr.

“It is about grounding them as well,” said Phillipa. “That their whole lives cannot just be athletics… You read these articles about these top runners who get an injury and all of a sudden they feel their life is over whereas if you have music, education, other sports…” she added.

****** 

The decency and humility of the family is as apparent as their ambition. They are driven yet grounded and do not take themselves too seriously away from the elite events they compete in and frequently win.

The good natured slagging they give each other is backdropped against a very strong familial warmth. We ask which of them is the oldest twin. Freya, it turns out, was born two minutes before Holly.

“Holly couldn’t even win that race,” quips her Dad.

It is a strange situation Holly Renton finds herself in. One of the best young middle distance runners in the country yet the one person she struggles the most to beat is her twin sister.

“Holly has got used to finishing just behind Freya so that’s been tough. She’s competitive too but over the years you’ve learned to deal with it, haven’t you?” Bryan Renton says to his daughter.

“I’m happy for Freya but I’d rather it would be me,” she explains.

She did have one very enjoyable victory over her sister in a national indoor final. There were two finals taking place, with the winner being whoever had the fastest time. Freya Renton went first and set a time.

Holly had a target and squeezed inside it.

“That’s the first time I’ve ever seen Freya sort of really miffed! Holly is the one person she doesn’t want to be beaten by,” recalled Bryan.

“I’d prefer someone else to beat me than Holly to beat me,” adds Freya.

You ask might the outcome have been different if Freya went second to chase Holly’s time.

“Oh yes,” replies Freya as Holly, sitting beside her, shakes her head and rolls her eyes.

Holly is described by her Dad as the ‘big game racer’, who can always up her performance for big events even if form or injury have hampered her preparations.

“If I have someone in my mind that I really don’t want to beat me, I just won’t let it happen. Well, except Freya,” she added, laughing.

They are inseparable – except, marginally, when it comes to running. Holly is trying to narrow that gap all the time but their relationship gives them a unique advantage in an individual sport. They get to travel together for international trips and have an elite opponent as their training partner.

“It is just like being at home because Holly is in my room. And other girls would not have the same training partner as I have, at the same level,” said Freya.

“You’re with your best friend,” added Holly. “It is definitely a lot easier for us because we are twins compared to others who are alone.” 

Aside from defeating their Dad – and that is a clear focus for both girls – the year ahead brings new horizons.

This coming weekend both of them are in London for the Celtic International Cross Country.

The following week they hit for Portugal for a week’s training camp after both were selected for the Athletics Ireland Performance Pathway.

Looking further into 2026, this year presents the chance to compete at European level for the first time. Those events only commence for Under 18s and though the girls will be underage next year too, Freya Renton is very clear on her targets.

“To stay injury free and in the European Under 18s (track) I’d love to medal in 3k and I’d love to win the European Cross Country Under 18s,” she declared.

The European Under 18 track finals are in Italy in July while the cross country is in Serbia in December.

With no real sense of what the level was like, they watched last year’s European cross country and saw their Irish colleague Emma Hickey win Under 18 bronze aged 16.

“That was incredible, it is the first time anyone has ever done that for Ireland,” observed Bryan Renton.

And consider this – even though Freya Renton is a year younger than Emma Hickey, she has beaten her in every cross country race they have faced each other.

So you can well imagine why winning it is in her crosshairs.

We ask about longer-term dreams towards the end of the interview and, given the ambitious nature of both, are not surprised by Freya’s answer.

“I’d love to win the Olympics,” said Freya, suggesting either in the 3,000m or 5,000m.

“Beat Freya,” is Holly’s succinct answer. Which, given the standards Freya is setting, might equate to the same answer as her sister.

Remember the names.