World U20 Track and Field for Cillian Gleeson
Celbridge AC’s Cillian Gleeson in action. Photo: Perri Williams.
Last Saturday Cillian Gleeson (Celbridge AC) travelled from his training base at the University of Wisconsin to Eugene, Oregon for the World U20 Track and Field Championships.
Gleeson will compete in the 5,000m, his first World Championship event on the first day of competition at 4.20pm Irish time.
Rather unusually he is the only Irish male middle distance athlete to have qualified for the World u20 Championships.
Gleeson has had an interesting year. Moving to the US to study Physical Education as a Sports Scholarship student at the University of Wisconsin has brought a lot of changes to his life. Coping with a new country, moving away from home and of course balancing the rigours of academic and sporting life.
Initially red-shirted for the Cross-Country season, he commenced his indoor season in December. He did have some new personal bests over 1,500m and one mile. His indoor season was a mixture of high’s and lows. However, on April 10th at the Plateville Invitational meet in Wisconsin he achieved the World U20 qualifying standard for the 5,000m.
Running a personal best of 13:54.27, Gleeson ran in the fastest of the 11 heats, finishing with the fastest time of the 203 athletes that competed. He was one of just two athletes who dipped under 14 minutes on the night.
Since then he has competed at the Badgers Alumni Classic in Wisconsin where he finished 9th in a time of 3:48.28. Two weeks later he finished 9th at the Big Ten Conference Meet n Lincoln Nebraska in the 1,500m.
This was followed by a 14th place finish in 3:58.39 in the elite 1,500m race at Jessheim (Norway). His final race was July 5th at the National U20 Championships in Tullamore where he opted to run over the 1,500m and finished 5th.
The Celbridge AC athlete had a tough nationals. Two weeks prior to competing he found out he had low iron levels. This certainly was an explanation for his dip in expected performance at important races such as the Big Ten 1,500m.
His training had been going well but his racing was not living up to expectations. “I came home at the start of June and that’s when I started to feel flat in training to so I decided to get a checkup just to see if there were any issues and sure enough the iron came up as low”, said Gleeson.
With a diagnosis like this the plan was just to compete at the nationals, finish the race and get started on a proper course of iron. Since then training as been going well and his iron levels have risen to a normal level “so I am ready to go” he said.
And ready to go he is, Gleeson arrives in Oregon with three personal bests achieved in 2026; 13:54.27 for 5,000m, 4.04.95 for the mile and 3:48.28 for 1,500m.
Since the U20 Nationals Gleeson headed back to the USA to his training base at the University of Wisconsin.
The idea was to get used to the warm weather and have less of an adjustment to make to the Oregon time zone. The unexpected and unprecedented Irish weather meant that Wisconsin was only marginally warmer than Ireland. But the time zone change remained an important factor, just two hours difference as opposed to seven hours from Ireland.
Gleeson has settled into University life and in particular to his running at Wisconsin. He knows the track, the trails, has access to great facilities, physio’s, recovery rooms and a great running group. And he gets to rejoin his coach Mick Byrne who has been Wisconsin’s resident middle distance and cross-country coach for decades.
Byrne, a Dublin native, is the reason Gleeson wanted to go to Wisconsin. Earlier this year Byrne announced that he will retired at the end of the Track and Field season. Starting next September Gleeson will be under the tutelage of Chris Solinskey, a former elite athlete who broke the 10,000m American record in the early 2000s.
“I feel pretty sad with Mick leaving as he was a great coach and role model. He was an Irish connection here in Madison and it was amazing to be able to train under him for the last year. My new coach will be Chris Solinskey. I’m really excited to work with him for the coming years”.
Reflecting on his expectations for his performance in the 5,000m in Oregon Cillian is pragmatic. “I go into a lot of championships with a real optimistic outlook but due to the build up being slightly hindered by the iron, my goal is to just do my best” he said.
He pragmatically continues that whether this best is winning or finishing 20th he will be content. An element of maturity creeping in after spending a year at college. “Just getting there was a big achievement for me”.
Gleeson vows to give the race everything he can, fighting for places from the start. Unlike previous u18 and u20 European Championships he is not putting as much pressure or expectation upon himself. Which of course is a better approach to a race. “As long as I cross that line knowing I gave it everything I could, I will be happy”.
The iconic Hayward Field is where the championships will take place. It is a location revered by many and savoured by the select few. Getting the opportunity to compete there is certainly something most athletes get excited about.
For Gleeson Hayward Field is special because of the association with Steve Prefontaine, a running idol who ran amazing races until his life was cut short at the tender age of 24. Hayward is also where Jacob Ingebrigtsen has won a series of race distances. Refurbished for the 2021 World Championships, the stadium is looking better than ever.
“I’m really excited to see Hayward as the history and stadium really draw my attention towards it and to be in a place with such a legacy will be amazing”. Having competed there myself, I think its only when you get there that you truly appreciate what a special place it really is," he said.
Success in achieving the World U20 standard comes on the back of the move across the Atlantic to the University of Wisconsin. The 2025 Cross-Country season was different. Gleeson was red-shirted for the Cross-County and Indoor season, meaning he would save his NCAA eligibility for another four years, giving him the opportunity to build a base, get stronger and be that little bit older during his NCAA competitive period.
This initially meant that he could only run invitational events, reducing his cross-country season to just two competitive races. During the indoor season Byrne was impressed with Gleeson’s progress in training, He was doing his hill reps and work-outs faster than most of the team. His red-shirt status was lifted, opening up more competitive opportunities.
The first few weeks at Wisconsin were a blur. It was all so fast. The leaving cert, European U20s, moving across, and having to stock his room with furniture and everything.
As the students started to drift back to college from mid-August, it was all about getting to know his fellow teammates. Gleeson’s roommate was Henry Rissar from Minesota an 800m runner. Rissar, Gleeson and the other athletes headed to Northen Wisconsin for a two week training camp from the end of August.
A kind of bonding experience, that saw them build an endurance based and return in time for the start of term. Sure he was homesick for the first few days after his family left, but the training camp helped the integration into his new running and university life. “Keeping busy helped”.
Lectures vary from big lecture halls where over 200 students attend to small classes of just 30 students. It is a big change from secondary school but not really any different than he would have experienced in Ireland.
There has to be a balance in each day to be able to manage both running and athletics. The day starts at 6.40am with breakfast at 7am. The first class is 8am – a little earlier than in Ireland. “I come back to my place for lunch about 12 or 1pm and my work-outs start at 2.30pm. I am usually back by 5pm”.
As with most athletes this is followed by recovery. For Gleeson this has changed to recovery at a specialised nutrition room followed by hot tubs and saunas. Its back to his dorm for food and the regime finishes at 7pm. Study then follows with bedtime being around 11pm. He trains once per day with Monday and Wednesday being twice. With 16 in his training group, there is always plenty of banter and drive.
The big difference in Wisconsin has been the focus on better nutrition. The training has not been too different, probably because he had spent a few years under the tutelage of Feidhlim Kelly at Dublin Track Club. There are some more strides and cool down’s are shorter. Gleeson feels that the change in his approach to nutrition has been instrumental in his improvements this year. Giving him better energy and better recovery.
When I spoke with Cillian last October I asked him what he wanted to achieve in his first year. One of the goals was to run sub 14 minutes for the 5,000m and qualification for the World Championships. He has achieved both of these goals and all attention will now turn to his race on the first day of the championships, where he will be the best he can be.
