29th April 2013:

After an up and down start to 2013 Brendan has managed to set new figures over the 20km distance in the German city of Naumburg. The 44th edition of the international race walking meeting was won by New Zealand's Quentin Rew in 1:22:16 while Brendan crossed the line in 1:24:38, which knocked 1 min 19 secs off his previous best time from 2011. The goal was to getting involved with the leading pack and get a feel for racing. Brendan was with the leading pack of 6 athletes going through 5km in 20:46 but was soon isolated as the pace increased and the group started to fracture. Brendan hit the half way point in 41:55 just shy of his 10km PB of 41:49 and was still in 4th place and in contention for a podium finish. Brendan was already digging deep at this point and a group of German athletes were now pushing hard from behind. Crossing the 15km mark in 1:03:06 he was still holding 4th place but with now only 9 seconds ahead of the two man German battle for 3 place in the German championships. The last 5km proved too hard and in the end Brendan had to settle for 6th place but with a PB in the bag 3 weeks out from the European Cup he was satisfied with his efforts. Brendan commented after the race:

                                                       "It's been a tough year so far with illness and adjusting to the new training plan but today

                                                        was a positive step forward and it sets me up well for the first peak of the year in 3 week

                                                        at the European Cup of race walking in Dudince on the 19th May."

Brendan is heading to Almeria in Spain tomorrow to continue his preparations for this competition.

30th Novemebr 2012:

The Ulster athletics Star awards took place tonight in the Four Seasons hotel in Monaghan. The awards bring together the best athletic talent in the province to honor and celebrate the achievements of the last year. Brendan Boyce picked up Senior male athlete of the year. Here's Brendan's reaction to winning the award:

                    "Winning the ulster senior athlete of the year is a great achievement, there is a great passion

                    for athletics in the province. It's nice to have recognition for my performances this year and                                                                                                I put everything into my race in London.

                     It's also great to promote the event in the region. Several of the underage awards when to 

                      racewalking aswell. It's sometimes an overlooked event but I feel it holds great potential for

 showcasing Irish talent on the global stage."

17th November 2012:

Brendan attended the Athletics Ireland National awards tonight as a nominee in the Race Walker of the year category. Robert Heffernan took the award as well as the overall award of athlete of the year. It was the only category on the night that boosted a full list of 2012 Olympians highlighting the events status as the strongest international discipline. It was a great night overall for Letterkenny AC as the club scooped Junior athlete of the year (Mark English), masters athlete of the year (Ciaran Doherty) and Coach of the year (Teresa McDaid).

16th November 2012:

Today the school community of Gairmscoil Chú Uladh, Ballinamore and the wider community of the Gaeltacht Lár gathered together in the school to lauch the schoold and community's 'Counch to 5k' and Brendan Boyce was invited as guest speaker to motivate the staff, pupils and community to undertake the challenge.

10th October 2012:

Olympian Brendan Boyce Inspires NWRC students

Students from North West Regional College were given the opportunity to meet Olympic athlete Brendan Boyce recently, during an inspirational talk on sports lifestyle and nutrition held at the College’s Strand Road Campus. 

Brendan has recently returned from the London Olympics where he competed in the 50Km walk event, smashing his personal best time by a massive 2min 52sec. He is also a former national champion in the seniors 20km category, and gave-up his free time to speak with a mixture of students from sport related courses to provide an insight into the life of a professional athlete. 

13th August 2012:

A homecoming fit for a champion was what awaited Brendan has be returned to his native Donegal. Brendan was meet by crowds in Letterkenny on his arrival. A cavalcade a mile long followed the local hero in a light green convertible through Ramelton, Ray, Rathmullan, Kerrykeel to his home town of Milford where he was greeted by six young children carrying homemade Olympic torches who then escorted three a breast the car holding the man of the hour to the local hall where hundreds more awaited to glimpse the first Olympian from the little town. After 30 minutes or more of photos with the local star studded inhabitants Brendan moved into the hall and a procession of speakers praise and athlete and performance some 20 years in the making, inspired by the Olympic he watched on TV as a 6 year old in this very town. Inspired by the love of competition and community spirit Brendan ended the night by saying:

                    "That was the message that inspired me on Saturday competing for Ireland: I wanted to do the community proud. I wanted to perform

                     for everybody....and we'll be back in Rio in four years time."

11th August 2012:

Brendan toe's the line this morning along with fellow Irish athletes Robert Heffernan and Colin Griffin. The race was quick from the start with large groups of athlete prepared to go with the leaders. Brendan stuck to his pre-race plan and hit his target splits at 20k and 30k, going through in 56th and 50th respectively. Over the next 20k he began to pick up the pace and pick athletes up all the way to the finish, 35k (47th), 40k (40th), 45k (34th) and finally making it up to 29th at 50km. This was the perfect execution of the race plan and a superbly confident performance from an athlete competing in his first major championship let alone Olympics. Brendan was visibly exhausted after the race and was taken from the course in a wheelchair but was back on his feet after a minutes rest and was first question was to ask how his fellow athletes performed. He was shocked to find out Robert had to settle for 4th after a phenomenal performance which saw him break the Irish record by an incredible 7mins 36seconds. Unfortunately Colin had fallen fowl of the judges and did not make it to the finish.

10th August 2012:

The Olympics are finally here for Brendan. As he prepares to toe the line tomorrow at 9am in the 50km walk. The race takes place outside Buckingham Palace and due to it being a free viewing event large crowds are expected to line the 2km course. Brendan's training has gone to plan and is making strong claims about his performance tomorrow. 

                       "My preparation has been the best it's ever been for a championships and I go into this race with no injury and in full health, 

                        so for me there is no hiding place. To not get a PB would be a failure in my eye's and I'm not here to race to make up some numbers."

Conditions are set to be hot and humid for tomorrows race so as with most 50k's the races is expected to take many twists and turns over the close to 4hrs of racing in the morning.

17th July 2012:

Brendan competed in the Cork City sports this evening at the CIT track. The event is the largest open athletics meeting in Ireland and attracted much interest from athletes preparing for the Olympic games which start later this month. The walk was held over 3,000m with humid and breezy conditions at the staduim. The race was won my local favorite Robert Heffernan in 11:14, however Brendan was off his best after just returning the night before from a hard months training in Spain and did well to break the 12 minute barrier with a 11:59 clocking. Still his second fastest time over the distance and only 10 seconds of his best. Brendan was still disappointed with only finishing 4th. However this was not a major focus for the Donegal man.

21st May 2012:

Athletics Ireland have made the official nominations of athlete's in the 50k walk and marathon's this afternoon. Brendan Boyce has been named along with Robert Heffernan and Colin Griffin to represent Ireland in the 50k walk on the 11th August at this summer Olympics in London. Both Robert and Colin have had previous experience of Olympic games but for Brendan it is the achievement of a lifetime ambition.

                    "As long as I can remember it is the only thing that I have ever truly wanted. To get the call this afternoon was one

                     of the best feeling ever."

Donegal has had to wait 36 years of the honor of having another athlete at the Games. Danny Mc Daid was the last back in 1976 when he competed in the marathon in Montreal. It is a proud moment of Brendan and his family.

                   "My family have always supported me even when it may have seemed a long way off and it is as much a reward for them

                    as it is for me. I can feel the whole of Milford and Donegal has really got behind me now and it's a great feeling." 

 15th May 2012:

It's a a great experience for young Brendan to compete in his first senior global championships in Saransk, Russia over the weekend. The World Race Walking Cup is the biggest race walking event outside the Olympics and World Championships and is normally held in early summer. As it allows each country to send 5 athletes each as opposed to the 3 at the other majors it can mean a bigger and stronger field than at Olympics. With a full winter of 50k training and only 5 weeks of specific 20k training is was going to be a tough experience for Brendan to get the most out of himself over this distance. However with his 3rd fastest time ever with 1:27:46 Brendan will be content but not satisfied with his 64th place finish.

                 "My aim was to PB but the conditions took me by surprise a bit, I started to suffer with my stomach about 8k and couldn't 

                  take on anymore carbs after 10k. My focus switched to staying cool and I made sure to take sponges and water at every 

                  opportunity and it worked as I moved slowly up the field in the second half."

During the race Brendan moved up from 86th at 5km (21:29) to 80th at 10km (21:47). Despite slowing after 10k, the heat was clearly a factor for most of the field Brendan continued to move up through the field and was up to 73rd (22:13) and held that pace to pass another 9th athletes in the last 5km (22:17) and finish in 64th.

                "I was happy with my mental strength and I used other athlete's to maintain my focus and push up the field but I know there 

                 still a lot that went wrong in the race. I need to respect and adapt to the conditions of races better and make sure my drinks

                 are better for next time. I need to learn to push through the pain better in the middle part of the race."

Brendan will spend the rest of the week recovering at his home in Donegal and will return to his training base in Leeds next week to prepare for another 20k race in Spain on the 9th June.

29th March 2012:

Here are Brendan's 1km splits from Dudince, times taken off his own watch which gave him a finishing time of 3:57:51.

4:51, 4:45, 4:48, 4:46, 4:46, 4:45, 4:45, 4:41, 4:44, 4:44, 4:44, 4:43, 4:42, 4:44, 4:43, 4:41, 4:43, 4:43, 4:43, 4:45, 4:42, 4:41, 4:44, 4:42, 4:43, 4:40, 4:41, 4:41, 4:44, 4:41, 4:43, 4:40, 4:46, 4:42, 4:43, 4:45, 4:51, 4:51, 4:44, 4:51, 4:49, 4:48, 4:43, 4:47, 4:49, 4:51, 4:53, 4:55, 4:50, 4:40.

Here is the results of athletes who finished, 45 out of 93 starters.

1    1  Schwazer Alex        841126 Italy                          3:40:58  

  2    5  Nowak Lukasz         881218 Poland                         3:44:24  

  3    4  Sikora Rafal         870217 Poland                         3:46:52  

  4    6  Höhne André          780310 Germany                        3:49:50  

  5   56  Papamihaíl Aléxandro 880918 Greece                         3:55:13  

  6   17  Trotski Ivan         760527 Belarus                        3:55:26  

  7   27  Boyce Brendan        861008 Ireland                        3:57:53  

  8   43  Romanenko Oleksandr  810626 Ukraine                        3:58:31  

  9   52  Quentin Rew          840716 New Zeland                     3:58:48  

 10    3  Moreno Xavier        791208 Ecuador                        3:58:57  

 11   13  Kazakevičs Igors     800417 Latvia                         3:59:02  

 12   28  Majdán Dušan         870908 VŠC Dukla Banská Bystrica      3:59:05  

 13   22  Berger Maik          790217 Germany                        3:59:10  

 14   37  Yarokhov Pavel       820721 Belarus                        4:02:07  

 15   38  Khimin Aleksey       890915 Russia                         4:02:58  

 16   44  Ibanez Ato           951114 Sweden                         4:03:20  

 17   26  Filipović Nenad      781005 Serbia                         4:04:17  

 18   45  Le Coz Xavier        791230 France                         4:05:09  

 19   48  King Dominic         830530 Great Britain & N.I.           4:06:34  

 20   49  Gaidamavičius Tomas  871107 Lithua                         4:06:48  

 21   20  Rosiewicz Maciej     770731 Georgia                        4:07:24  

 22   39  Rekst Ričardas       871010 Lithua                         4:07:58  

 23   82  Korpela Matias       891116 Finland                        4:08:41  

 24   12  Stsepanchuk Andrey   790612 Belarus                        4:09:44  

 25   96  Roze Eddy            701113 France                         4:10:17  

 26   92  Sakharuk Ihor        880603 Ukraine                        4:10:30  

 27   30  Dziubin Dzmitry      900712 Belarus                        4:13:50  

 28   50  Vershinin Ruslan     890129 Russia                         4:14:01  

 29   72  Gdula Lukáš          911206 Czech republic                 4:14:56  

 30   14  Zapata Magno Mesiás  810104 Ecuador                        4:15:40  

 31   65  Letourneau Florian   881219 France                         4:18:59  

 32    9  Ghoula Hatem         730607 Tunisia                        4:23:16  

 33   42  Tubak Róbert         790301 Hungary                        4:24:55  

 34   35  Ketner Karel         900411 Czech republic                 4:27:21  

 35  100  Carprice Jerome      830118 Mauritius                      4:27:37  

 36   46  Golawski Rafal       881024 Poland                         4:29:13  

 37  106  Tišťan Martin        921112 VŠC Dukla Banská Bystrica      4:37:46  

 38  110  Koléner Tibor        900924 Hungary                        4:50:09  

 39   73  Kozelka Antonín      851127 Czech republic                 4:51:60  

 40   76  Žák Jiří             710407 Czech republic                 4:52:01  

 41   77  Tichý Peter          690312 Športový klub polície Čadca    4:56:27  

 42  101  Balázs Sándor        800823 Hungary                        5:09:29  

 43  107  Koltai Dávid         830330 Hungary                        5:28:05  

 44   99  Devčic Berislav      66     Croatia                        5:33:33  

 45  104  Csaba István         590923 Hungary                        5:38:52

25th March 2012:

It was another encouraging weekend for Brendan in Dudince, Slovakia. This event is a staple in the walking calender with athletes coming from as far away as New Zealand to try and secure Olympic qualification. In the unseasonably warm weather with temperatures well into the 20's only 45 of the 93 starters made it through the 50km distance. However Brendan's warm weather training camps in Portugal in January and recently in Spain stood him in good stead and the temperature didn't prevent him from walking another PB with a time of 3:57:53, some 5 seconds faster than Naumburg last September, and coming home in 7th overall. With Colin Griffin falling foul of the Judges again and Jamie Costin dropping out it leaves Brendan all but certain to make his Olympic debut in London this summer. After Brendan was happy to have the pressure of qualification lifted "today was about making the standard again and keeping an eye on the other day guys, once I seen Colin getting taken out at 42k I just turned off and cruised home." Patsy McGonagle said he see no conceivable way that Brendan will not be selected now. Brendan now returns to Leeds to recover and train for the world cup in Russia in May where he will compete the shorter 20km event. 

10th February 2012: 

This weekend will see the Irish national indoor championship come to the Odessey arena in Belfast once again. This will be Brendan's first race since achieving the Olympic A standard over 50km back in September. It's been a long and recently cold winter but in an interview with Brendan he says it been his best winter to date. "This winter has been fairly good and luckily the weather hasn't been as big an issue as previous years, for the first time ever in my winter preparation I was able to get away and get some warm weather training done in Portugal at the start of January." The race this weekend is a 5,000m  and a distance rarely competed in at the senior level. "The 5,000m isn't something I train specifically for but it's the same with the other athletes and it won't put me off getting stuck into the business end of the race", indeed this race is packed with talent and Robert Heffernan walked the fastest 5,000m in the world at this event last year. He will also be joined by Jamie Costin and Colin Griffin who both made the trip to Beijing for the 2008 Olympics. Also lining up is Tom Bosworth the UK record holder for the outdoor 5,000m and Micheal Doyle the other Irish representative alongside Brendan at the world student games last summer. Also with several improving Juniors lining up in a more familiar distance for that age group and with a few races already in the legs, Evan Lynch and Luke Hickey could have a role to play in this ultra competitive event. Brendan comments "you can't rule anyone out, obviously Heffernan is the man to beat with 13 title on his belt already but he won't have it all his own way this time. I'm gonna do my best to make sure of that".

27th January 2012:

Brendan has been nominated for the Donegal sports person of the year awards too be held in the Silver Tassie tonight Friday 27th January. Brendan is up for the award in athletics and will be up against some other great athletes including Mark English (Letterkenny AC), Mary McLoone (Tir Chonaill AC) and Teresa McGloin (Finn Valley AC). Unfortunately Brendan is unable to attend the awards to be hosted by special guest and RTE sports presenter Tony O'Donoghue. Brendan's brother Brian will be representing him at the awards. Brendan said "it's great to be nominated for these awards, there is such depth in sport in Donegal and the county has a real passion for it's sports stars. Unfortunately my training schedule didn't allow me to travel back for the awards but all the nominated athletes have achieved highly in the last year to get there nominations and I hope all in attendance have a great night."

18th January 2012:

Brendan has just returned from a successful 2 week training camp in Monte Gordo in Portugal. The purpose of the trip was to escape from the unpredictable and generally cold weather in Leeds and to focus on a consistent and sustained block of endurance work tailored towards the 50km in March. He was joined on the camp by team mates Colin Griffin and Laura Reynolds for the duration of the camp. Monte Gordo is the training ground for many walkers at this time of year and walkers from France, Finland, Poland, Tunisia and Portugal were all seen honing there skills on the roads and in the gym.  

16th December 2011 

Brendan returned home this week to attend the Olympic conference in Co.Down last weekend. He then made most of his time in Donegal by taking a tour of the Core pro fitness facilities in Letterkenny which mainly provides elite golfers with the services that allows them to preform at their best, they have also works with other Olympic athletes in the past. The was then invited as guest of honor at the Milford AC clubs awards night which was held in Dusty's in Milford. Brendan presented the awards to all the eager young athletes of the club and also to veteran athlete Hugh Gallaghar. He then was invited to help at the opening of a new gym in Letterkenny called optimal fitness. Brendan said "it's a great pleasure to be here at the opening of this facility, the gym is well equipped for the needs of a range of athletes and the knowledge of the Guys involved will make this place a great success.". It was then back to the UK to continue his training over the Christmas period. 

24th September 2011

Today Brendan Boyce put in a excellent and exciting performance in the 50km at the German championships in Naumburg as he secured his A standard qualifying standard for the Olympics next year. Brendan walked 3:57:58 just over a minute inside the A standard and a PB by more that 10 minutes. He walked a superbly well judged race and was walking just inside the standard for the whole race and was fresh enough to drop his fastest km for the race to finish it off with a 4:29. After the race Brendan comment that "I was comfortable all the way, my plan was to walk close to 4:45 per km and keep my heart rates low for as long as possible. I was able to walk my faster km at the end". This is just reward for many years of hard work.

28th August 2011 

Provisional entries for the 50km in Naumburg on the 24th September have been posted to http://www.racewalking-naumburg.de/

Entries for 50km men

Entries for 20km men

Entries for 20km women

27th July  2011

The Colleges and University Sports Association of Ireland (CUSAI) have announced the 26 athletes who will be competing at the World University Games in Shenzhen, China, August 12th to the 23rd.

Athletics

Amy Foster, Co Down
Brendan Boyce, Co Donegal
Darren McBrearty, Co Donegal
Jessie Barr, Co Limerick
Justine Kinney, England
Kourosh Foroughi, Co Meath
Laura Reynolds, Co Leitrim
Micheál Doyle, Co Dublin

18th July 2011

2011 world championships 

Team Management:
Team Leader: Kevin Ankrom
Team Manager: Patsy McGonagle

Team Coaches:
TBA

Athletes that have hit an IAAF standard:

Northern 5km in Leeds, 2nd July 2011:

Brendan had a 5k race at his local track in Leeds and finished 2nd to training partner Tom Bosworth in 20:31. The time represents a outdoor track PB but it was incorporated into a full weeks training as Brendan is still recovering fitness from his knee injury. After the race Brendan commented that 'it was more of a training session really, I did 8k this morning and I've got 30k tomorrow. My aim is to train hard for the whole of July and hit the national 10,000m hard in August as final preparation for world students.' Full results:

Jul 02, 2011 Race Walk Final - 04:59:32 PM
Finish - Tom Bosworth - 20:17.57
Finish - Brendan Boyce - 20:31.47
Finish - Dom King - 21:44.66
Finish - Johanna Jackson - 21:49.33
Finish - Jamie Higgins u20 - 23:29.53
Finish - Becky Collins - 27:30.08
Finish - Daniel Waples u17- 27:40.59
Finish - Lu Cardenas - 28:59.58
Finish - Kayleigh Edge u20- 30:12.96
Finish - Keith Richards- 30:32.77
Stopped at: 05:30:05 PM [30:33.85]