Talented Offaly athlete takes big step forward with new professional contract

A TALENTED young Offaly athlete has taken a giant step forward by signing a professional contract and joining an elite training group in Manchester.

Ballycommon man James Dunne has signed a contract with New Balance and joined the Team New Balance Group which is based in Stockport, Manchester. A 1500 metre specialist, Dunne will benefit greatly from training with elite athletes from the UK and Ireland.

One of Ireland's top female athletes Ciara Mageean has been part of the group which includes runners who have competed in the Olympics, World Track and Field Championships and World and European Cross Country Championships.

Steve Vernon, a former English international runner, set up the group in 2015, with athletes living and training together.

It is a terrific opportunity for Dunne, who progressed up through the much vaunted juvenile section at Tullamore Harriers. He went on an athletics scholarship to Adams State University in Colorado in 2020, later switching to Georgetown Univesity in Washington DC, obtaining business qualifications.

He has ran very well on the colleges circuit in the USA with his times coming down across a variety of distances. He ran the B qualifying standard for the 1500 metres for the World Championships when posting a personal best of 3.35.17 in North Carolina earlier this year and will now be hoping to bring his running onto another level.

In an evocative Facebook post at the weekend, Dunne wrote: “I didn’t realise it then, but every solo run down the canal and every rainy workout growing up was me chasing something I couldn’t quite name yet. Now I see it was this dream.

“They say you’re only as strong as the people around you, and I’m grateful to have joined an incredible group @teamnbmcr in Manchester under @clitherstherunner (Helen Clitheroe).

Growth comes from stepping into the unknown, and I’m excited to begin this next chapter.”

He will be coached in Manchester by Helen Clitheroe, a highly rated coach who was a successful runner herself. From Preston, Clitheroe competed in the 1500 metres at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and in the 3,000m steeplechase in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. She won a bronze medal in the 1,500 metres at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, gold in the 3,000 metres at the 2011 European Indoor Championships and she has coached Ciara Mageean.

Dunne comes from a well known and popular Ballycommon family – his brothers Karl and Conor are prominent rugby players with Tullamore and footballers with Ballycommon.

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