Nick Griggs takes under-23 title and senior men take silver at European Cross-Country Championships
An imperious run by Nick Griggs started the Irish gold medal rush at the European Cross-Country Championships in Portugal, his victory in the under-23 race also leading Ireland to a brilliant team title in the same category.
Griggs already had three runner-up medals to his name, but there was no stopping him around the fast and furious course at Parchal Urban Park in the Algarve, as he crushed the opposition in the last of the four laps.
Five days shy of 21, the Tyrone athlete is still young enough for this grade next year. Griggs’s training partner Calum Morgan also ran a superb race to finish eighth. Niall Murphy took 10th place, giving Ireland the team gold with just 19 points.
The Irish senior men’s team wrapped up the day with a superb silver medal, making that podium for the first time in 25 years, after Jack O’Leary, Brian Fay and Cormac Dalton together ran beautifully timed races to all finish in the top 12.
O’Leary stormed through to finish an excellent fifth, with Fay 11th and Dalton 12th, well enough to win silver over the 7.5km race, just behind Spain. Their cautious start paid off, the team placed fifth after the first lap, before moving up to fourth at halfway.
World 10,000m champion Jimmy Gressier from France was outkicked for gold by Spain’s Thierry Ndikumwenayo, the Ireland team delighted with their effort, which improved on the senior men’s bronze won in 2000.
Earlier, in the women’s under-20 race, 16-year-old Emma Hickey from Wexford won bronze after a beautifully timed effort, that race dominated Britain’s Innes FitzGerald. Anna Gardiner, the Down runner back from college in the US, also ran a strong race to finish sixth.
The Irish mixed relay quartet fell off the medals in dramatic style when Cian McPhillips effectively ran into Laura Nicholson when passing the armband between the second and third leg.
Eimear Maher ran an excellent first leg to pass over to McPhillips in second, the Irish 800m record holder doing well go hold on to fourth by the end of his leg.
Then it all went wrong between McPhillips and Nicholson, who briefly hit the ground, losing one place and about 10 metres in the process. Nicholson did recover quickly, running in fourth for a while, before dropping back to seventh on the last changeover to Coscoran.
It was 1,300m for the opening leg, then 1,510m, another 1,510m, before 1,640m for the last leg, which included the homestretch. Coscoran did gain one place, with Ireland ending up sixth, 10 seconds behind gold medal winners Italy, with Portugal winning silver, and Britain winning bronze.
