Ireland have claimed the team gold medal in the Men’s Under-23 SPAR European Cross Country Championships with Darragh McElhinney winning the individual silver medal.
McElhinney ran a magnificent race, duelling with Great Britain’s Charlie Hicks for top spot and while the Irishman led with 700m to go, Hicks was able to turn on the afterburners in the closing stages to take the gold.
Hicks crossed the line in an impressive time of 24:29, with McElhinney four seconds behind.
McElhinney’s performance, coupled with a sixth-place finish for Keelan Kilrehil and 13th for Michael Power, saw Ireland take the team gold medal.
The gold was Ireland’s second team medal of the day with the Under-20 team taking silver in their event.
Sarah Healy finished fifth in the Women’s Under-23 race with gold going to Italy’s Nadia Battocletti.
Ireland’s mixed relay team of Ciara Mageean, Luke McCann, Síofra Cléirigh Büttner and Andrew Coscoran narrowly missed out on bronze. They were in pole position after two laps but fell out of the medal positions in the last leg to finish fourth.
Brian Fay finished 10th in the senior men’s final, 30 seconds behind the victorious Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway, who ran a time of 30:15.
Hiko Tonosa finished 13th with Cormac Dalton in 28th, while Emmet Jennings and Paul O’Donnell were 44th and 56th respectively.
Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal completed a double success for Norway with victory in the senior women’s final, where Fionnuala McCormack finished ninth and Eilish Flanagan came 15th.
Aoibhe Richardson was 23rd, three places ahead of Roisín Flanagan. Aoife Cooke finished 38th with Michelle Finn 46th.
