The 32 year old, who works on a dairy farm near Cork city, was just 18 seconds outside his personal best, achieved in last years Dublin Marathon. He was justifiably delighted with his victory, the first by a Cork based male over the marathon distance in many years. “ I ran with the second placed runner, Garry Payne from England, all the way up to 24 miles, but he fell back at that stage,” said Sosnowski, who eventually finished almost two and a half minutes to the good.

“It was a nice course, with very few hills, and the conditions were very good for running.”

A native of Gdansk – famous as the birth place of Solidarity 25 years ago – Sosnowski has been living in Ireland for three years and is a popular figure in local races. Sponsored by Dairy Power of Whites Cross, he had averaged 75 miles a week for several months in preparation for Longford.

“ I started running, mainly track, when I was around 21 back in Poland, but it wasn’t until coming to Cork and joining Eagle that I really started taking it seriously,” said the modest Sosnowski.

Just two weeks after his Longford victory, Sosnowski showed his remarkable powers of recovery by winning the Blarney Half Marathon, beating Colin Deasy from Coventry by almost a minute in 73:09. “I now hope to run Dublin at the end of October, where I would like to get under the 2:30 barrier”, he said.

Written by John Walshe for the Oct/Nov2005 edition of Irish Runner.