From Athletics Ireland After winning the European Cross Country Championships for two years in a row a medal was just beyond Fionnuala Britton’s grasp today in Belgrade, Serbia. The race was fast and furious from the start with Koroline Bjerkeli of Norway breaking away at the early stages. The Norwegian was reeled back in at the halfway mark by the chasing pack of quality championships performers including Britton, Dulce Felix (Portugal), Gemma Steel (Great Britain), Sophie Duarte (France), Julia Bleasdale (Great Britain) and Almensch Belete of Belgium.
Duarte then began to exert her presence moving away from the field with Felix and Steel battling it out behind and Britton in fourth who continued to try to get back into a medal contention spot. It was to be the French Women’s Duarte’s day and she took the title in 26.34 from Steel in second and Felix in third with Britton fourth in 26.45.
Britton who had missed the Summer season due to illness spoke after the race “I came here to take the title, I felt it was my race as much as anyone’s. I never felt comfortable and I was trying to reel the girls (Felix and Steel) back but there were driving each other on. It was very frustrating. I was there to challenge for a medal but they were just better on the day”
The rest of the women’s team battled hard but were missing three of the top scorers from last year’s winning team and finished in sixth place. Sarah Treacy improved on her 42nd place from last year to finish 31st followed by Ciara Durkan in 36th and Sarah Mulligan a late call up finishing in 44th completing the scorers. Ann-Maire McGlynn in her first major senior championships finished a solid 49th and Dublin Marathon winner Maria McCambridge came home in 55th place.
The Senior Men’s Team also finished in sixth place. The team bunched well with two top 20 finishes; Michael Mulhare in 15th and David McCarthy in 18th. Both of were members of the U23 Gold Medallist team from 2010 and delivered very heartening performances with Mulhare improving on his 44th place from 2012 and McCarthy delivering in his first competition at Senior level. The other two scorers were National champion Paul Pollock in 26th with Dan brother of Michael in 31st place. Mick Clohissey placed 56th and Stephen Scullion 63rd.
The Men’s U23 Team were battling for a podium position throughout the race but finished in a highly commendable fourth place with 120 points. The team were in third place throughout but faded to fourth in the last lap. Great Britain won with 40 points, Ukraine second with 72 points and France third with 78 points. Paul Robinson led the team home putting in a stellar performance to work his way through the field to finish in ninth place. John Travers was the next of the Irish in 32th, followed by Kevin Dooney in 38th. Shane Quinn who had been up in the top 20 in the early laps faded to 41stcompleted the scorers. Jake Byrne placed 60th and Ryan McDermott 71st.
Chris Jones National Endurance Coach commented: “This is a team of exceptionally talented athletes and given the calibre and quality of the team, we were expecting a finish in the top five and they delivered”
First off today were the Junior Women’s team in the 4k race. They finished in 16th place with Siofra Clerigh Buttner (DSD AC) the highest placed athlete in 37th position followed by Amy O’Donoghue in 58th place. The rest of the team who are club-mates from Dundrum South Dublin finished as follows; Meghan Ryan in 69th, Isabelle Odlum in 78th, Clare McCarthy in 98th and Sarah Fitzpatrick in 100th.
While in the Junior Men’s 6k race, the team finished in ninth place improving on their 18th place from last year. Sean Tobin (Clonmel AC) led the team home in an impressive ninth place in 18.18 minutes. Tobin who was not able to compete last year due to sickness, put himself in contention throughout and was up with the breakaway group from 1.5k into the race. The Tipperary man ran strongly throughout to maintain a top ten position.
Speaking after the race Tobin spoke of his disappointment: “Everything has been focused on getting the best out of ourselves (the team) at these championships. At least I got to the line healthy this time but I am still very disappointed with ninth – I really wanted a medal”.
Andrew Coscoroan (Star of the Sea AC) was the next Irish man across the line in 40th, Aaron Hanlon (Clonliffe Harriers AC in 47th and Ruairi Finnegan (Letterkenny AC) 61st. Kevin Mulcaire (Ennis Track) finished in 85th and Con Doherty (Westport AC) in 95th.
Jones commented: “Our junior athletes are part of the development programme and they will have gained tremendous experience from this event. Our key focus for this group has been on preparation and working with their personal coaches to help them to deliver their best performance at these championships.”
Speaking of the overall performance Jones said: “We had strong teams here in Belgrade and we just missed out on podium positions with Fionnuala and the Men’s U23 Team finishing fourth. I am delighted with the Senior Men’s team sixth place finish and I feel we can really build on that for next year. The preparations for the team were ideal and we see this as a platform that we can really build on over the next few years to consistently deliver performances.”