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Such is the unquestionable service and unfailing commitment and consistency of Fionnuala McCormack when it comes to the European Cross-Country that it feels almost unreasonable and unfair to be asking for more right now. Even with the natural excitement of the home event that is Sunday at Abbotstown.
Just last Sunday in Valencia, four months after running the Olympic marathon, McCormack produced a brilliant new lifetime best by almost three minutes, her 2:23:58 moving ever closer to the Irish record which has stood untouched for over 23 years. Now 37, McCormack would feel perfectly entitled to sit at home in Wicklow this weekend, feet up, with her husband and two young daughters.
Instead, she committed to Abbotstown weeks back, in her own words “unable to resist the allure” of a home European Cross-Country, and in truth if the Irish women’s team are to win another medal (they’ve won four in the last eight editions of the championships, including gold in 2012, McCormack the leading scorer every time), then her presence is indeed pivotal. Exactly how well she’s recovered from 26.2 miles of racing, seven days later, only Sunday will tell.
What is certain is McCormack will relish the competition. Only Catherina McKiernan, with her Irish record of 2:22:23 from Amsterdam in 1998, is faster on the Irish all-time women’s list, and McCormack continues to follow in her footsteps in other ways too, McKiernan having won the inaugural European Cross-Country in 1994.
Sunday also marks McCormack 17th appearance in the event, more than any other woman in European athletics history, the first as a junior back in Thun, Switzerland, 20 years ago this same weekend. In 2011 and then 2012, she became the first woman to win back-to-back titles, also finishing fourth on four different occasions, including the last edition in Lisbon in 2019.
Join the hunt
McCormack isn’t the only returning scorer from two years ago, Aoibhe Richardson from Kilkenny also back to join the hunt, the addition of Michelle Finn, the runaway winner of the National Cross-Country in Santry last month, ensuring they’ll be in that medal chase again.
At senior men’s level, Ireland have only once made the podium, 21 years ago, when the quartet of Peter Matthews, Seamus Power, Gareth Turnbull and Keith Kelly won bronze in Malmo, Sweden. It’s not a great return in 21 years since and Sunday is unlikely to change that, though Hiko Tonosa Haso won’t fear this level of competition,his first European Cross-Country for his adopted country, the presence of Norway’s Olympic 1,500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen, just turned 21 and the best runner in the world right now, one obvious measure of the opposition.
There are medal hopes among the other five Irish teams, including the mixed 4 x 1,500m relay, introduced in 2017, which includes three Tokyo Olympians in Andrew Coscoran, Ciara Mageean and Síofra Cléirigh Büttner, plus the highly promising Luke McCann, and if all four run to form and make the most of the home support at the Sport Ireland campus, they’ll be hard to beat.
The under-23 races can sometimes be hard to predict, Sarah Healy and Darragh McElhinney certainly coming into form, the long, sweeping nature of the course probably to their liking too. The women’s Under-23 team, who won silver in 2019, are certainly capable of repeating that feat.
Then there’s Nick Griggs, the Tyrone runner still a week shy of his 17th birthday, who won the European under-20 3,000m title this summer with such a fearless display of front-running and still-astute tactical awareness that anything seems possible. Despite his tender age, it doesn’t feel too unreasonable to expect Griggs to get the day off to a winning start.
Irish teams for European Cross-Country at Abbotstown
SENIOR MEN Hiko Tonosa Haso DSD AC Feidhlim Kelly Paul O’Donnell DSD AC Donal Hennigan Emmet Jennings DSD AC Donal Hennigan Ryan Forsyth Newcastle & District AC Richard Rodgers Brian Fay Raheny Shamrock AC Andy Powell Cormac Dalton Mullingar Harriers AC Taylor Gulley
SENIOR WOMEN Michelle Finn Leevale AC Róisín Flanagan Finn Valley AC Aoibhe Richardson Kilkenny City Harriers Aoife Cooke Eagle AC Fionnuala McCormack Kilcoole AC Eilish Flanagan Finn Valley AC
UNDER-23 MEN Darragh McElhinney UCD AC Keelan Kilrehill Moy Valley AC Jamie Battle Mullingar Harriers Micheal Power West Waterford AC Donal Devane Ennis Track Club Thomas Devaney Castlebar AC
UNDER-23 WOMEN Sarah Healy UCD AC Aoife O’Cuill St Coca’s AC Danielle Donegan UCD AC Lauren Tinkler Dublin City Harriers Ruth Heery Waterford AC Jodie McCann Dublin City Harriers
UNDER-20 MEN Nick Griggs Mid Ulster AC Dean Casey Ennis Track Club Scott Fagan Metro St Brigid’s Sean Kay Clonliffe Harriers Cathal O’Reilly Kilkenny City Harriers Abdel Laadjel Donore Harriers AC
U20 WOMEN Jane Buckley Leevale AC Emma McEvoy DSD AC Rebecca Rossiter Loughview AC Laura Mooney Tullamore Harriers Aoife McGreevy UCD AC Róise Roberts North Belfast Harriers
MIXED 4 X 1,500m RELAY Andrew Coscoran Star of the Sea AC Luke McCann UCD AC Ciara Mageean City of Lisburn AC Síofra Cléirigh Büttner Dundrum South Dublin
Sunday’s Schedule
(Live on RTÉ One, RTÉ Player and european-athletics.com)
10am Under-20 men (6km) 10.28am Under-20 women (4km) 10.50am Under-23 men (8km) 11.23am Under-23 women (6km) 12.21pm Mixed relay (4x1500m) 1.13pm Senior men (10km) 1.53pm Senior women (8km)