One of the best-ever displays of Irish team cross-country running earned a bronze medal for the senior men's team at yesterday's European Championships in Malmo, Sweden.
All of Ireland's scoring four finished in the top 25, led home by Dublin's Peter Matthews in 10th place. With Seamus Power not far behind in 14th position, Gareth Turnbull in 23rd, and Keith Kelly in 25th, the Irish team did enough to sneak the bronze medal ahead of Portugal. Ireland's points total of 72 was just two better than Portugal's.
Portugal had reason to celebrate, though, as Paulo Guerra regained the individual title, his fourth victory in all.
France were clear team winners with a score of just 23, with Spain taking the silver medal on 51. By finishing third through to fifth, and also taking 11th place, the French - consisting largely of North African-born runners - produced one of the lowest team scores in the seven editions of these championships.
Matthews' 10th-place was the best ever performance by an Irishman in the race. The 31-year-old was just 24 seconds off Guerra's winning time of 29 minutes and 29 seconds. Power was just another three seconds back and with the demanding course of just under 10 kilometres surprisingly dry, only a minute separated the first 25 finishers.
Guerra made his decisive break after five of the eight laps, coming home 10 seconds clear of the 1998 champion, Serhiy Lebid of the Ukraine. France's Driss El Himer was third. The strong-running Matthews paced his race perfectly, as did Power, but equally crucial was the strong finish of 21year-old Turnbull from Belfast, who continues to make significant progress at senior level. The US-based Kelly showed a few signs of tiredness after his success in the American collegiate championships last month but he too made a crucial contribution.
Fatal to Portugal's chances of taking bronze was the 48th-place finish of Vitor Almeida. They also took 13th and 14th places but the more consistent scoring of the Irish secured the medals. Belgium ended up fifth, and the demise of Britain's men's distance running continued as they came in sixth - the first occasion that they finished behind the Irish at this level.
Anne Keenan-Buckley led the Irish senior women home with a highly impressive ninth-place finish. The 38-year-old mixed it with the leaders from the start and came home just 22 seconds behind Hungary's new champion Katalin Szentgyorgyi.
After a summer struggling with injuries, 21-year-old Szentgyorgyi simply ran away from Analida Torre of Portugal and Olivera Jevtic of Yugoslavia on the last lap of the 5km race. Her time was 16:34, one second ahead of Torre.
With Rosemary Ryan the next Irish finisher in 15th place, the Irish women also seemed to be set for a high team placing. But with Maureen Harrington, the third scorer, back in 36th place, they had to settle for sixth place behind winners Portugal.
The two Irish junior teams had a harder time of it, both finishing outside the top 10. Deirdre Byrne was best of the women's team in 58th behind Portugal's champion Jessica Augusto. The Irish finished 18th place, behind winners Britain.
Mark Smith was the first of the junior men's team to finish, in 56th place, with victory going to Germany's Wolfram Muller. Portugal pipped Britain for the team title.
