Historic silver medal for Ireland at European Cross Country Championships

LAST UPDATE | 22 hrs ago

The 42

TEAM IRELAND SECURED their first senior men’s medal in 25 years after a stunning silver at the European Cross Country Championships.

All five of the Irish in action finished inside the top 20 to secure 26 points, 10 adrift of winners Spain.

In a sensational team display, Jack O’Leary finished fifth with Brian Fay also creeping just inside the top 10.

Cormac Dalton was right behind him in 11th with Darragh McElhinney in 16th and Efrem Gidey 19th.

The achievement came fresh on the back of a gold medals in the U23 event in Portugal as Nick Griggs also confirmed himself as European champion with his first place finish.

The 20-year-old led Ireland to a gold with a dominant individual performance in a time of 17:47 seconds, while all three members of Team Ireland finished in the top 10.

France’s Aurélien Radja was 12 seconds further back from Griggs in second place.

Team Ireland’s Callum Morgan finished in eighth and Niall Murphy was 10th as they kept France in second and Spain in third at bay.

There was disappointment following that triumph for the mixed relay team of Cian McPhillips (UCD AC), Andrew Coscoran (Star of the Sea AC), Laura Nicholson (Bandon AC), and Eimear Maher (Dundrum South Dublin AC) as they missed out on a medal with a sixth place finish, 10 seconds behind winners Italy.

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Portugal earned silver with Britain and Northern Ireland taking bronze.

When McPhillips took the reins from Maher for the second leg Ireland were in third position behind leaders Belgium. Some stumbles proved costly and they were in fourth position for the handover when Nicholson suffered an early fall after a collision with McPhillips.

Ireland dropped to sixth for Coscoran’s final leg but the gap was insurmountable to the medal winners.

Earlier, Wexford’s Emma Hickey produced a stunning performance for Team Ireland to take a bronze medal in the Women’s U20 Cross Country race.

The 16-year-old finished third on her debut in this event with Britain’s Innes Fitzgerald taking gold.

In the senior women’s race, national champion Fiona Everard put in a stirring, resilient performance for a 10th place finish.

It is her best result at an European Cross Country Championships.

Everard’s teammates were Niamh Allen (23rd) Danielle Donegan (36th), Emily Haggard-Kearney (44th) and Mary Mulhare (50th).

Written by David Sneyd and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won’t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women’s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here.