from Athletics Northern Ireland Portaferry’s Ciara Mageean battled her way through to 7th place in the Junior 4K . The 18 year old World Junior silver medallist admitted that she was expecting to finish higher in a high quality 4K race as she had her sights firmly set on a medal.
She said;
"The race was fast from the start and a gap developed which I didn’t expect. While I am disappointed I must take the positives from this as I did in fact finish 2 places higher than last year .I am now firmly aiming at a medal next year."
The Lisburn athlete in fact made more ground than anyone else in the latter half of the race when she pulled back some 13 places. However she left herself far too much to do and finished half a minute behind pre race favourite Charlotte Purdue of GB & NI.
The runner up from 2 years ago was always in command and her decisive break at the halfway mark gave her a substantial 15 secs winning margin. She and her bronze meadal teammate Emelia Gorecka gave GB an easy 30 points victory margin over Germany.
The versatile Mageean will now compete in the big New York indoor meeting next month en route to racing at the Odyssey and the Euro Indoors in Paris.
Mageean’s training partner Emma Mitchell of Banbridge AC was 72nd in Albufeira. Mitchell, who is also coached by Eamonn Christie, was one minute and 36 seconds behind Mageean. Kerry Harty was 47th in the Senior Women’s race which was won by Jessica Augusto who led the entire race in a fantastic display of running.
There were major celebrations in the Irish camp when Ireland took totally unexpected gold medals in the Men’s U 23 Race. The 4 man team squad was completed by Michaet Mulhare (16th) and David Rooney (20th) .This gave Ireland a total of 60 points which was a decisive 18 points ahead of runners up France.
Delighted team manager Anne Keenan Buckley said; "I knew this was our best ever U23 team but I never expected the lads to get gold-bronze was the best we expected. This result was based on 6 really good athletes working as a team-their packing was magnificent "
These are Ireland’s first ever team gold medals since these Champs started back in 1994.
Irish Inter Counties champion Fionnuala Britton seemed to be inspired by this victory as she had the race of her life to snatch 4th place in the Senior Women’s 8K. She was in bronze medal position for most of the race and was unfortunate to lose out on the line to Portugal’s Ana Felix. Teammate Jessica Augusto took gold and helped her country secure an easy team victory.
The Aviva Great Britain and Northern Ireland team – spearheaded by Charlotte Purdue’s individual gold – was once again the dominant force at today’s SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Albufeira, Portugal (Sunday 12 December), topping the medal table for the third successive year with four gold, one silver and two bronze.
