Welcome to The Red Bull Irleand Newsletter. In this publication we’ll keep you up to speed with Ireland’s Red Bull Athletes.

There’s drifter Conor Shanahan, Pommel Horse Gold medal winner Rhys McCleneghan, mountain bikers Ronan Dunne and Greg Callaghan, surfer Conor Maguire, rugby star Mack Hansen, and Ireland hockey goalkeeper Ayeisha McFerran, pictured above.

So that’s an awful lot of local talent to be reporting on.

But The Red Bull Report will also bring you stories, images, videos and more from the wild and
wonderful world of Red Bull.

DRIFT Masters has announced the official driver line-up for the 2025 season, and gunning for a return to glory this year is the 2023 champion, Conor Shanahan.

The 19 year old Cork native will line-up on the grid alongside 2024 champion Lauri Heinonen, 2017 champion Adam Zalewski and mutil-time champions Piotr Wiecek and James Deane.

Alongside them on the grid will be, to name but a few of the many fan favourites returning, Duane McKeever, Kevin Piskolty, Benediktas Cirba, Tor Arne Kvia, Kuba Przygonski and the return of Japanese driver, Naoki Nakamura for a full season once again.

Drift Masers will also see a number of drivers joining the grid for their first full season in the championship, such as France’s Jason Banet, Finland’s Jarkko Jylhä, Espen Rohde from Norway and Cypriot driver, George Christoforou.

The 2025 grid will also see former Drift Masters commentator David Egan will jump into the driver seat for this season, alongside his Irish teammate, teenager Conor Falvey.

Round 1 kicks off on April 25 at the Vallelunga Race Track in Italy.

DRIFT Masters is back, and its going bigger and bolder than ever in 2025. The next season promises to be the most thrilling yet.

For the first time ever we move to seven breathtaking rounds, which will take drivers and fans across all corners of Europe, delivering unforgettable moments at some of the continent’s most iconic venues that promise to deliver one of the most hotly contested seasons of Drift Masters yet.

And will Red Bull drivers Conor Shanahan and Jakub Przygoński go up against each other like they did at the Round 5 in Hungary last August.

FOR anyone who has ever dreamed of being part of a record-setting global event,  this is your chance.

In less than 75 days, hundreds of thousands of people around the world will take part in this year’s Wings for Life World Run; which this year is aiming to break its own record as the largest running event in the world.

The Wings for Life World Run is the most inclusive running event in the world, with a signature format that embraces participants of every fitness level, whether they run, roll in a wheelchair, jog or simply walk. What’s unique about the run is that everyone will start at the exact same time across the globe: on Sunday May 4th, at 11.00am UTC or 12.00pm Irish time.

But they don’t run toward the finish line – they run away from it. Participants are chased by the App’s signature “Catcher Car,” which gives them a 30-minute head start. When this virtual finish line moves past them, they’ve successfully completed their race.

The 2024 edition shattered records as over a quarter of a million participants helped to raise €8,104,499 for spinal cord research. The total of 265,818 Wings for Life World Runners included 192 nationalities as they set off simultaneously in 169 countries, and they covered an average of 11.5km each, for a total distance

equivalent to nearly 50 times around the globe.

Registration costs €25, and you can sign up today via www.wingsforlifeworldrun.com. The run is the primary fundraiser for the not-for-profit Wings for Life foundation, with 100% of entry fees going directly to research toward finding a cure for spinal cord injury.

Following the biggest summer of his career, Swedish-American pole vaulter Armand “Mondo” Duplantis, pictured inset right, has come on board as a new global ambassador for the Wings for Life World Run. He will be joined by Austrian tennis star Dominic Thiem as global ambassadors for what is the 12th edition of the run this May.

“I’m super excited and honored to be a global ambassador of the Wings for Life World Run. I think it’s such an amazing initiative.” Duplantis added: “Running for those who can’t – it’s such a beautiful event and a beautiful thing to be a part of. It’s something really special and I just can’t wait.”

The Wings for Life World Run starts simultaneously around the world at 11:00 am UTC / 12pm Irish time on Sunday May 4th, 2025.

IRELAND’S JOSH mcERLEAN AND EOIN TREACY making steady progress IN world rally championship driving for m-sport ford

JOSH McErlean got his World Rally Championship debut off to a flyer, finishing the challenging and very technical stages of Monte-Carlo, in an impressive eighth position.

Kilrea native McErlean, along with his Cork co-driver Eion Treacy, joined the M-Sport Ford World Rally Team to compete in the 2025 FIA WRC behind the wheel of a Ford Puma Rally1.

And with a successful first WRC round under his belt, McErlean made a fantastic start at the second round in Sweden, impressing with a top-five stage time on the opening day and continued to charge up to seventh overall.

But then disaster struck when he ran slightly wide on a high-speed right-hander, and got his Puma Rally1 stuck in a snowbank.

“It’s been a real step forward since Monte-Carlo. We’ve shown strong pace in terms of stage times, and that’s something we can take forward. It’s given me huge confidence to say that I can actually fight with the top guys, and delivering top-five times has been really good to see.” McErlean said.

The Irish duo made embarked on their WRC journey together after successful seasons across the WRC2 and ERC championships.

Supported by Red Bull Motorsports and the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy, they are competing in the full season, tackling 14 rallies across four continents and three different surfaces.

Richard Millener, M-Sport Ford World Rally Team Principal, said:“M-Sport is renowned for giving opportunities to up and coming talents in the sport.

With the backing of the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy, that is exactly what we will be doing for Josh and Eoin and 2025 will be a huge challenge for them both.

WILL Gadd has completed his ascent on the last remaining and rapidly melting glacial ice atop Mount Kilimanjaro.

This climb marks Gadd’s rise to the absolute highest point in all of Africa and stands as a reminder that these natural wonders will disappear in a few short years.

In October, after months of planning, Gadd embarked on his trip to Tanzania. Faced with the daunting first task of acclimatizing to the altitude, he reflects, “at 6,000M it’s challenging to even walk.

Even before we reached the glaciers, I was gasping for air like a fish out of water. We would have to collapse just to breathe sometimes.” After a week of hiking, Gadd and his team caught the first glimpse of the rare ice formations, which he describes as “fins of ice sticking out of the hot sand…they look like icebergs on a tropical beach”.

A native of Western Canada, Gadd is used to glaciers retreating in his home mountain range of the Canadian Rockies. This African ice, however, has melted over the course of up to 12,000 years leaving enormous ice crystals that are more difficult to latch on to, with even the most advanced and lightweight climbing equipment.

Will recalls, “some of the ice pieces I climbed one day had fallen apart and melted the next. It’s changing so fast up there that you have to be careful to choose a solid enough piece that isn’t going to just fall over onto you.”

A milestone in Canadian sport and in Gadd’s own personal adventure repertoire, he describes the climb as one of the most challenging and meaningful of his career. “I’ve climbed a lot of ice,” he says, “but this was special and extremely important because it was the last ice of its kind. I felt so very lucky to be there - these glaciers are just small remnants, they’re truly in their last gasp”.

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PLANE CRAZY: Dario Costa

seen in Kitzbühel, Austria

Kalle Rovanperä battles drift icon Initial D on Japan’s most challenging road.

Two-time World Rally Champion Kalle Rovanperä celebrates his passion for Japanese culture by battling local car culture icons through a series of challenges to face his idol – Initial D – on a winding mountain road in Japan.

The Finnish rally protégé took on Mount Iwaki in Aomori Prefecture, navigating the challenging corners between the base to the summit.

During his climb in the home of drifting, Rovanperä met & challenged Japan’s top racers, leading drift race drivers, supercar teams and his cultural idol – Fujiwara Takumi from manga Initial D at the top of the mountain.

Continuing his pursuit of diverse motorsports experience, Kalle Rovanperä took 2024 off in his consistent appearance in WRC to combine a series of drifting competitions, Porsche Carrera Cup as well as recent F1 test before going to Japan for the Initial D project.

Rovanperä battles through a series of challenges to face his idol Initial D

on Japan’s most challenging road