Sporting Spotlight Sporting Spotlight

This week's guest on the show is one of Ireland's top marathon runners. Clonliffe Harrier's Gary O'Hanlon chats to Breifne Earley about disliking athletics until he started to win races at fourteen.

The car accident that nearly ended his running career at seventeen and his return to competitive action almost fifteen years later, egged on my his Amphibian King colleague Kevin English, before winning a bronze medal in the Irish Cross Country Championships in 2012.

Winning four marathons (Connemara, Limerick, Kildare and Newry) in eight weeks back to back before a second place in the Cork marathon in June saw him explode into the public consciousness through his continued exposure in all the athletics media at that time of the season.

He brought his good form into the end of the season and it rubbed off on the plenty of athletes he coached through the Dublin City Marathon. It was a personal disaster for Gary despite finishing 6th in the race, an incident the previous day with his phone being stolen resulted in a broken hand for Gary, who ran the race regardless.

And finally the less said the better about his effort in the Sporting Spotlight, although with the amount of training required to be that competitive over the marathon distance we'll forgive him.

This week to celebrate the Dublin Marathon, Breifne chats to Rob Costello, a veteran of 20 marathons, about how he got into running in his mid twenties.

He talks about playing social football through college and deciding to join a group from work in a marathon in Barcelona, how a 100km race is 'only two and a half marathons' and suffering in 42 degree heat during a 100 mile race attempt in the Western States Endurance Run in the USA.

He has completed twenty marathons across the globe including Dublin, Barcelona, Sydney, Gold Coast, Melbourne, San Francisco amongst other exotic locations

He also chats about how his swimming has held back his Ironman ambitions although he hopes to rectify that in the future.

This week Stephanie Roche is in the Sporting Spotlight talking about her sporting career with Peamount United, Dundalk City, Raheny United, Stella Maris, and learning her craft with Valeview Shankill, Cabinteely and Tony Pouchs Wicklow Academy.

Starting from playing with the lads on her estate she developed into a Senior International and playing in the UEFA Women's Champions League & Bus Eireann Women's National League with Peamount Utd.

She outlines the major influences on her career and talks to us about that goal which lit up the internet all week.

This week Breifne Earley has Ireland's premier female adventure racer Avril Copeland in the spotlight.

She talks about her initial sporting career as a senior international hockey player focused on reaching the Olympics, before pursuing a love of country music and finding herself rubbing shoulders with her favourite artist Garth Brooks living in Nashville, Tennessee.

While there she found herself drawn to the new world of adventure racing and after attending a training camp knew it was where she wanted to be in a sporting sense.

She has moved on to become one of Ireland's top athletes currently partaking in this growing sport and as an ambassador for the Killarney Adventure Race is urging everyone and anyone to consider getting involved in the multi-discipline sport.

This week's guest is Dublin & Naomh Mearnog Ladies Gaelic Football netminder Cliodhna O'Connor. Having won an All Ireland and two all star awards with Dublin over a ten year career between the posts for the Jackies.

She chats to Breifne Earley about getting her break at senior level after injuries and emigration gave her an opportunity and she's never looked back.

Cliodhna mentions growing up through Naomh Mearnog with a great group of girls who all graced the blue jersey in either football or camogie at some level. She profiles disappointments with her club before the joy of finally bringing home the Brendan Martin Cup in 2011.

This evening Breifne chat's to Irish Cricketer Kevin O'Brien who faces his turn in the Sporting Spotlight.

He chats about growing up in a cricket crazy family and how he progressed from a kid playing with his brothers for his local club Railway Union to hitting the fastest one day world cup century in the victory over England in 2011.

He talks about the tragedy surrounding the death of the Pakistan coach after their encounter in the 2007 World Cup as well as the progress of Irish Cricket since that debut World Cup.