Ava Crean
Irish long-distance runner
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ava Crean is an Irish long-distance runner. In 2025, Crean became the youngest Irish national champion in the women's marathon, at the age of 19 years-old, in only her third race at the distance.[1]
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Irish |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Athletics |
Event | Long-distance running |
| Achievements and titles | |
| Personal best(s) | Marathon: 2:34:12 (Dublin, 2025) |
Biography
Crean is from Mungret in County Limerick.[2][3] Crean took part in climbing, karate and camogie in her youth as well as playing basketball, and was a member of the Irish U-17 national basketball team academy.[4][5]
Crean started running to stay fit during the COVID-19 pandemic, but initially completed most of her training on a treadmill, saying that she "didn't want to run outside because I was kind of embarrassed".[6] After the pandemic, she enrolled in an exercise science degree at University Academy 92, in Greater Manchester, England.[4][5]
Crean made her marathon debut at the Manchester Marathon in April 2025, listing her target time as 3:30 but finishing close to an hour faster in 2:49.[7][4] In May, she ran her second marathon with a time of 2:43:26 in Limerick.[8] She became a member of Back 2 Boston running club in Limerick, and coached by John Kinsella.[7][6]
In September 2025, Crean, won the Charleville Half Marathon in 1:15:22, and then the Manchester Half Marathon in 1:14:06.[5] In October 2025, at the age of 19 years-old, Crean won the Irish national title at the Dublin Marathon, in a time of 2:34:11 with which she placed sixth overall, and was a nine-minute personal best.[9] The time put her second on the Irish women's marathon 2025 list behind Fionnuala McCormack, and placed her 13th on the Irish all-time list.[4] She also became the youngest ever winner of the Irish women's national marathon title.[2]
On 11 January 2026, she ran a personal best for the 10km to 32:46 whilst competing in Valencia.[10]