European Cross Country Championships Ones to Watch

Tomorrow the 2022 edition of the European Cross Country Championships will take place in La Mandria Park, just outside Turin in Italy’s Piemonte region. The fields look particular strong across all the age groups, with all 6 individual champions from Dublin back to defend their titles.

Here are some of the athletes to watch out for across the U23 and senior races.

La Mandria awaits

U23 women

The U23 women’s race could well be the highlight of the championships. The top 6 from last year’s race, which included multiple Olympians, are all still age-eligible, and five of them will toe the line in Turin!

They will be joined by the U20 race winner in Dublin, GBR’s Megan Keith, who finished second to Jess Warner-Judd (4^th senior last year) in the British senior trials; putting her among the contenders.

Home favourite, and defending champion Nadia Battocletti, is, however, the one to beat. She won the U20 titles in 2018 and 2019, and was 7^th in the Olympic 5000m in Tokyo. She finished 6^th and 2^nd in recent World Cross Country Tour Gold events in Atapuerca and Alcobendas, respectively.

Yasemin Can is the only female to have won more individual titles than Battocletti at this event, and if the Italian was to win, and the Turk to fail to do so, they would draw level on four titles each.

Mariana Machado won bronze last time around, and the Portuguese champion will look to add further to her medal haul after also winning bronze at U20 on home soil in 2019. She finished 10th in the World Cross Country Tour Gold event in Sevilla three weeks ago.

Manon Trapp was 4^th in Dublin and will be looking for her first individual medal at this level. The Frenchwoman, who has a black belt in Judo, finished 5^th in the 5000m at the European U23 Championships last year.

Ireland’s hopes lie with Sarah Healy, who’ll be looking to improve on her 5^th place last time out. Sarah was an emphatic winner of the Irish Championship/trials in Donegal three weeks ago, and will be chasing down her first European cross country medal.

Not to be ruled out is Battocletti’s Italian teammate, Anna Arnaudo, also a year older and stronger, who finished 6^th in Dublin and won silver over 10,000m at the European U23 Championships last summer. Arnaudo was a clear winner of the test event on this course in November.

Emma Heckel (Germany) won bronze in the U20 category in Dublin. She finished 38^th at the recent NCAA Div 1 Championship. Amina Maatoug (NED) and Yasmin Marghini (GBR) who finished just in front of her in Stillwater also race.

Klara Lukan, last year’s silver medallist, and Izzy Fry, 2022 World University Cross Country champions, are notable absentees. Lukan doesn’t appear to have raced since the spring, and Fry just missed out on making the British team, but is named as reserve.

The team title should, on paper, be a mighty battle between Italy and GBR. With only three to score, and with two major contenders in their ranks, Italy will be looking to retain their title on home ground.

For the Brits, Keith will be ably supported by Marghini, Mid-Ulster’s Grace Carson, Alex Millard and others. GBR won this time title 9 of the first 11 times it was held, but their last win was in 2018. GER, NED and ITA won in ‘18, ‘19 and ‘21 respectively.

Trapp led the France to silver in Dublin and will be joined by Flavie Renouard, the European U23 steeplechase champ, who finished 18^th last time. The three scoring members of the German team who won gold in the U20 race in Dublin also compete in the U23 race this time around.

Danielle Donegan, Laura  Mooney, Aoife Ó'Cuill, Jodie McCann and Niamh O'Mahoney join Healy in the Irish team. Healy, Donegan and McCann were the scoring members of the team that finished 5^th last year.

U23 Men

This race is also almost guaranteed to be a cracker. Charlie Hicks (GBR), Darragh McElhinney (IRL) and Ruben Querinjean (LUX), the individual medallists last time out, are all racing again, as are the 4^th, 6^th, 7^th, 8^th and 9^th placers from Dublin.

Hicks is the defending champion, and after his recent NCAA Division 1 title, he will start as favourite.

But Hicks has already been beaten by one Irishman this season (Brian Fay finished ahead of him at NCAA West regionals), and McElhinney will be hoping to make that two. McElhinney the Irish Senior champion, would so dearly love to cap off a fine year with an individual European title.

Don’t think, though, that these two are the only ones to watch. In a team stacked with talent, McElhinney isn’t even the only individual medal contender among the Irish contingent, so let’s start with them!

Efrem Gidey won bronze in the U20 race in Lisbon in 2019, and while his progress has been hampered by injury, he is coming off a fine summer during which he finished 6th in the 10,000m at the European Champs in Munich. He was 5^th in Donegal.

Keelan Kilrehill, 6^th in Dublin, and the 2^nd Irish scorer that day, is also a serious contender. He was only 6 seconds off a medal then, and will be looking to challenge his teammates for bragging rights.

Shay McEvoy, who finished 23rd at NCAAs three weeks ago, will be looking to spring a surprise. Jamie Battle (44^th last year) and Thomas McStay (who missed Dublin on medical grounds) complete the Irish team.

Other individual contenders include Querinjean who finished just three seconds behind McElhinney in Dublin. He finished 3^rd in the CrossCup race in Mol in October. Last year he won Luxemburg’s first Euro Cross medal; could he add their first title in Turin?

Magnus Tuv Myhre (NOR) was fourth in Dublin, and is the Norwegian Cross County Champion! He finished just a place behind Gidey in the 10,000m final in Munich this summer.

Antoine Senard (FRA), Aarón Las Heras (ESP) and Zak Mahamed (GBR), 7^th, 8^th and 9^th respectively in Dublin, are also all back. Las Heras was 26^th at NCAAs (Div I), Mahamed was the leading U23 at the British trails, and Senard, who didn’t race outdoors this season, was 6^th in Mol in October.

Pol Oriach (ESP) and Andrii Atamanium (UKR) move up to the U23 category after finishing 4^thand 5^th in the U20 race in Dublin last year.

Etson Barros, 2^nd in the 3000m steeplechase at the 2021 European U23 Championships, is a member of the Portuguese team.

It’s difficult, from this biased perspective, not to imagine the Irish team defending their team title, even on a mediocre day and even without the home advantage; they’re certainly the team the others will have their eyes on.

But the winning margin over the British team last year was only 3 points, and with Hicks, Mahamad and Rory Leonard who finished 16^th last year, all back in their team, it may not be the green whitewash everyone is expecting. 

Some sharp rises and falls will help sort champions from the also-rans

Senior women

The senior women’s race includes the top 7 from the 2021 race, along with a 4-time champion and other in-form athletes. The most interesting element here, however, will be the team competition; on paper a three-way battle.

Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal (NOR) is the defending champion, and will be looking to add to her already enviable Euro Cross record. She already has more individual medals than any other female at this event, having finished on the podium on 8 of her previous 9 appearances.

Grøvdal finished 8^th in the 5000m at the World Championships in Eugene this summer, but was a DNF over the same distance in Munich. She’s run some low-key road races in Norway in the run up to this event.

Yasemin Can (TUR) went into Dublin looking for her fifth consecutive title but, short of fitness, she finished just 14^th. The European 10,000m champion finished 8th in the World Cross Country tour in Atapuerca in Nov (behind Teferi and Battocletti) but won in Sevilla a week later.

Meraf Bahta (SWE), has also been a medallist on multiple occasions. She won bronze in 2014, and silver in 2017 and 2021, but missed Eugene and Munich due to injury. Bahta served a backdated one-year doping suspension in 2018/19 for failing to give whereabouts information three times within 12 months.

Alina Reh (GER) last year added an individual medal to the medals she’d previously won at U20 and U23 level. She finished 2^nd at the European 10,000m cup and 8^th over the same distance in Munich, but struggled after her DNF in the 5000m there. She did, however, win the German trial event recently.

Jess Warner-Judd (GBR) finished 4^th last year and will be looking to go at least one better to add to her medals at U20 (silver, 2014) and U23 (bronze, 2016). She won the British trials in Nov, after competing in the 10,000m at World Champs (where she also did the 5,000m), Commonwealth Games and Euro Champs this summer.

European 5000m champion Konstanze Klosterhalfen (GER) finished just two places behind her teammate in Dublin last year, and has yet to add a senior medal to her Euro Cross collection. She won the Valencia half marathon in October in a swift 1:05:41.

Selamawit Teferi (ISR) was 7^th last year. She finished top 8 in both the 5000m and 10,000m in Munich, and was 4^th (and first European) in the World Cross Country Tour Gold race in Atapuerca in November.

Sweden’s Sarah Lahti hasn’t featured since finishing 6^th in the U23 race way back in 2015 but with wins in Mol and Tilburg already this autumn she must surely be in contention for her first top 10 as a senior.

If Bhata, Mengsteab and Lahti are all on form, Sweden won’t be beaten in the team race. They, however, have little back up and had to go all the way back to 30^th place for their third scorer to take bronze last year.

And if any of the Swedish three falter, Germany and Great Britain, who both have more depth in their squads, will be ready to pounce.

In addition to Reh and Klosterhalfan, Germany has Hannah Klein, a 14.51 5000m runner, and 2:26:50 marathoner Miriam Dattke who won bronze in the U20 race in 2017 and finished 4^th in the Marathon in Munich in August.

Warner-Judd will be supported in the British team by Jess Gibbon and Abbie Donnelly who finished 11^th and 12^th last year, the Euro indoor 3000m champion Amy-Eloise Markovc (who finished 4^th U23 in 2017), and Cari Hughes and Poppy Tank, who’ve previously finished top 10 in the U20 and U23 categories, respectively.

With the withdrawal of Ciara Mageean, 2^nd at the Irish Championships in November, the Irish team certainly look weaker, but they now contain 6 athletes who’ve been on previous medal-winning teams at either U23 or senior level.

Roisin Flanagan and Aoibhe Richards were scoring members of the team which finished 4^th last year, but in a closely-matched team, any 3 of the 6 (Michelle Finn, Ann-Marie McGlynn, Mary Mulhare and Eilish Flanagan being members) could score this time around.

Senior men

Jakob Ingebrigtsen. There, that was easy.

Joking aside, Ingebrigtsen is the defending champion, undefeated in 5 appearances at Euro Cross, Olympic Champion, World Champion, European champion at 1500m and 5000m, and actually still eligible for the U23 race here. But if 2022 has thought us anything, it’s thought us that he is beatable.

As with the women’s race, 7 of the top 10 from Dublin return, though we also need to look elsewhere for Ingebrigtsen’s likely challengers.

Yemaneberhan Crippa (ITA) didn’t finish in Dublin last year, but won silver behind Kaya in 2019 to add to his double U20 titles from 2014 and 2015 and his U23 bronze in both 2016 and 2017. He is the European 10,000m champion.

Aras Kaya (TUR), the 2016 and 2019 champion, was second to Ingebrigtsen last time. He was 3^rd at the European 10,000m cup in May but only 16^th in Munich.

Belgium’s Michael Somers finished 5^th in Dublin, and was 2^nd in the Cross Cup race in Mol in late October.

Isaac Kimeli, also from Belgium, finished 9^th in Dublin, but won silver in Tilburg in 2018, and was the U23 champion back in 2016.

Yann Schrub (FRA) finished 6^th in Dublin and completed the French scoring team that day. He finished 3^rd to Crippa in the European 10,000m championships in Munich.

Nassim Hassaous (ESP) was 7^th last year and has finished top 8 in the four Spanish-based World Cross Country Tour gold events so far this season.

Brian Fay (IRL) was 10^th last year, and looks in good shape coming in this race after recently breaking the Irish indoor 5000m record. He finished 13th at the NCAA Div 1 Champs in Stillwater in November (25 places higher than last year!) and beat Hicks to take the NCAA North-West regional title.

Mohamed Katir (ESP) is an interesting entry. The European 5000m silver medallist and Olympic finalist has undoubtable speed, but is, as yet, unproven over the country. He finished 6th, and best of the Spaniards, at the World XC Tour even in Sevilla three weeks ago.

Emile Cairess (GBR) is another with top 10 potential. His 1:00:32 half marathon in October emphatic British trials win two weeks ago certainly suggest that he’s in the shape of his life. His best Euro Cross result is an 8^th place in the U23 race in 2018.

The race also features 2018 champion Filip Ingebrigtsen (NOR), who, like Crippa, failed to finish in Dublin.

The home team will also have European Steeplechase bronze medallist Osama Zoghlami among their ranks. And speaking of steeplechase, the European champion, Topi Raitanen (FIN) will also race.

Elzan Bibic (SRB) won silver at U23 level in 2019 and bronze in the 2018 U20 race. A win in Tilburg (World XC Tour silver) in November, suggests that while he may be ready to make a mark on the senior race this time around.

German Champion Samuel Fitwi Sibhatu won U23 silver in 2018 and finished 5^th senior in 2019. His teammate Davor Aaron Bienenfeld was 14^th in Stillwater.

French trio Jimmy Gressier, Hugo Hay and 8 Felix Bour who finished 3^rd, 4^th and 8^th respectively in Dublin, will not race this year, opening up the team competition somewhat. The Spanish team, who won silver last time, looks particularly strong, but a number of teams will be in the shake up for the minor medals.

In addition to Katir and Hassaous, the Spanish have Carlos Mayo - silver in 2014 (Jun), 2015 & 2016 (U23), 11^th in Dublin and 13^th in Eugene (10,000m); Abdessamad Oukhelfen - U23 bronze in 2019, and 12^th last year; Roberto Alaiz - 7^th in the senior race way back in 2015 and Sergio Paniagua - 2^nd recently in Alcobendas.

With potential top 10 finishers in the form of Somers and Kimeli, Belgium will look to their third scorer to improve on last year’s 5^th place. Robin Hendrix, 15^th back in 2018, looks like their best hope of making the podium.

The Irish team were just 4 points off a medal last year, and must fancy their chance at silverware this time around. Supporting Fay will be Hiko Tonosa Haso (13th last year), Cormac Dalton and Barry Keane who were just behind Fay in Stillwater, and Peter Lynch and Pierre Muchan, 3^rd and 4^th respectively at the recent Irish Championships.

The British team were only 6^th last year, but cannot be discounted. If Cairess gets anywhere near the medals, then the likes of Mahamed Mahamed (3^rd U20 in 2016), Ben Connor (top 10 2017 & 2019), Jack Rowe (18^th last year), infamous club runner Ellis Cross and Hugo Milner could help them to the podium.

Norway, meanwhile, have not two, but three Ingebrigtsens. Henrik won the U23 title in 2012, and finished 18^th in Dublin. The brothers will be backed up by Narve Nordas, 25^th last year; Jacob Boutera a steeplechase finalist in Munich, and Per Svela.

There will be blood!

A note on the U20 races and mixed relay

I didn’t preview the junior races last year, and I haven’t planned on this year. Some of them are still children, and I always feel they already have enough pressure from themselves, yet alone adding to that.

In the interest of managing expectations, it is, however, worth noting the strength and depth in both races, but especially in the U20 men’s race where all three medallists from 2021 start. There are a couple of Irish athletes with the potential to at least think about the podium, but if there isn’t medals, then it may not be because they’ve had an off day.

And there’s no way I’m going to wade through the runners and riders in the mixed relay. Anything could happen there!

Now, why don't you have a go?

Think you can do a better job at prediction the senior results? Why not have a go at #FantasyEuroCross. Just select who you think will win all the senior medals, and see how you get on.

You can enter here now.

Update: Bhata and Kaya are both late withdrawls.

I cheated once...

I cheated once. 

In a race.

I’m not proud of it.

It happened. And I have no defence.

I also have no way of undoing it.

***

It’s early 2004, and I coming into the second-best shape of my life, if there is such a thing. In a few weeks’ time I’ll make the Irish team for the World University Cross Country Championships (I don’t know it yet, but that’ll be the pinnacle of a protracted but unremarkable running career). I’m at Camp Hill in Liverpool, taking part in one of the Merseyside Colleges Cross Country League races, a low-key, mid-week, mixed-gender cross country series held in various parks across Merseyside throughout the winter. 

I’m doing well in the league. I’ve been mixing it with all but the top lads. I’ve even taking a few scalps along the way. 

But there’s a problem with today’s race. The course isn’t marked out as well as it should be. Someone’s forgotten to place a flag in the corner of a field. The volunteer helping direct the runners is timidly pointing us diagonally across the field to the other corner, cutting 50 or 60 metres off the course each time. 

But that’s fine. I’ve run this course before. I run the correct course. But those in front don’t know any better. They take the shortest route. Every time I start to make ground on the lads in front, they pull away on that part of the course. The competitor in me is a little bit frustrated. But there’s more to it than that. I start to feel a bit of a fool. A little miss do-gooder running the full course when it feels like nobody else is. On the final lap I cave. I follow the leaders.

But those behind me don’t. They’ve run the full race.

I don’t catch any of those in front over the final lap. And I more than keep my gap on those behind (no surprize given that I’ve run a shorter race than them). I finish seventh.

My friend finishes one place behind me. He is furious. He’s sure he could have beaten me today had I not cheated. He knows that I know the course and that I had no reason to cut that corner. But more importantly he expects more of me and I’ve let him down. I’ve let myself down.

I know I had the beating of him today. I’m sure of it.

But neither of us will really know. There is no way of knowing.

It’ll bother me for years to come. In the 2020s I’ll still be thinking about it. I may even write about it then!

***

I can never undo what I did that day. But I can learn from it. Honest and integrity have always been important to me, but in the aftermath of that race, I realised just how important they were, and why. 

But I also learned how easy it is, in the heat of the moment, to make a mistake. How easy it is to justify something, just because everyone else is doing it. And how difficult it can be to do the right thing when it looks to you as if you’re the only one doing so. 

Had there been someone there to disqualify me, I’ve have paid my price, and could have got on with my life. Had there been someone making sure we were on the right track, it would never have been an issue to begin with. All I had was a decent friend to call me out.

***

As I said, integrity is important to me. And I’ve written before about how the doping in sport and the not talking about it breaks my heart. That was a few years ago. Things have changed. We’ve had the introduction of super shoes, the Russians aren’t around, and everyone has been training really hard through the pandemic. Nobody dopes any more.

Wait, what? 

Think about it. 

We don’t need to be fully paid-up members of the ‘they’re all doping; cheating is human nature’ side to recognise that advances in technology or a lack of competition for a couple of summers didn’t suddenly make the performances you watch any more believable. 

“You know what, there’s shoes now that make me go faster; I’ll cut back on the EPO”, said nobody ever.

True, the old yardsticks are not relevant anymore (probably time to move to metres anyway), and we’ve had world records, or second-best performances, right across the track and field events. But the benefit that was denied for so long (why are you not respecting me and my performances; I still have to put on the shoes and run in them), are now being credited with improbably performance gains. And the resultant insatiable appetite for jaw-dropping performances has even allowed throwers – who obviously aren’t benefiting from carbon fibre plates - to make quantum leaps forward unquestioned. 

The performances you watch aren’t any cleaner that those you watched 5, 10 or 15 years ago, it’s just a bit more difficult to spot the dubious ones.

Just the way Seb would have wanted it.

***

And it’s not just that we’ve been gorging on performances which are likely tainted but which seem somewhat less outlandish simply because of their abundance. There’s also the enabling. A not insignificant number of individuals who have doped themselves (and served bans) or who have been involved in doping regimes, continue to coach in the sport. Yes, there are arguments about individuals serving their time and having a right to earn a living. But if we really care about this sport and its integrity, how can we employ doping offenders on six-figure salaries to coach impressionable young adults? Yes, they might get ‘results,’ but at what cost?

And why would anyone who believes in clean sport want to work or be part of a system with a tainted reputation? True, it might be difficult to find a role at the highest level that isn’t in some way linked to doping or doping suspicions, but if we don’t make a stand now, that’s only going to get more and more difficult to do.

For future generations the choice may be a simple one: do performance sport and dope; or don’t do it at all. Maybe we’re already at that point. We’ve got to do something now. And wouldn’t taking a stand against doping offenders coaching be a half-decent place to start? 

Either way we’ve got to show that we still care.

***

If I was a clean athlete, turning out top drawer performances at a serious rate, and people started to question my results, would I be hurt? Of course, I would. But if I was clean because it’s what I believe in – rather than just because I don’t want to be caught – then I’d be f*$king delighted that people still care; that whether or not my performances are clean still matters to people; that there is still some desire out there to clean up this sport and make it a better place for our children. 

While the questions might not make a cheating athlete repent, I’d hope that as a clean athlete any outpouring of actually giving a feck might just help me continue doing what I do clean. That it would encourage me to continue to avoid cutting those corners, irrespective of whether I know others are doing so, or presume that those who are not might be.

We will never catch all the cheats. But, for the sake of clean athletes everywhere, we’ve got to put everything we can into trying. But most of all we’ve got to make it easier to do the right thing by having some actual repercussions for not doing so.

***

I’m grateful to Neil for calling me out that day in 2004. He was right. I know that now. I knew it then.

But I also know I could have beaten him fairly that day.

I just wish I had.

Not so that I could recall it now. But so that I could have forgotten it almost two decades ago.

And so that I could say that everything I’ve achieved in this sport, I’ve achieved fairly.

A vintage year: The 2022 season in five races

It's been a great year! Let's make it last a little bit longer. My five favourite races from the 2022 track season!

No 5. Ireland's fastest women

Women’s 100m final, Irish Senior Championships, Morton Stadium, Santry, 26 June

It was touted as a rare opportunity for an Irish audience to see, live and in-person, sprint sensation Rhasidat Adeleke, the woman who’d re-written the Irish record books already in 2022. A demonstration. The Adeleke show.

Molly Scott, who’d knocked chunks off the Irish indoor 60m record before Adeleke got her hands on it, had other ideas. This, afterall, is the one distance at which Adeleke doesn’t top the Irish all-time list.

Scott, injured early season, had a quiet build-up. Adeleke, jet lagged, was coming off the back of a busy NCAA season where she’d raced mostly over the longer distances.

Could this even be someone else’s day?

The Morton crowd waited.

After a start disrupted by in-field commentary, the 7-woman field were recalled to their marks. Sarah Leahy in two. Lane three vacant. Scott in four. Sarah Lavin in five. Lauren Roy in six. Adeleke in seven. Joan Healy in eight. And Lucy-May Sleeman on the outside in lane nine. Ireland’s fastest women.

Silence, this time, for the start.

And away they went.

Scott, powering out of her blocks, kept the head down. Her arms propelling her down the track. Adeleke was quicker to rise, her long, looping stride eating up the ground. But the Carlow woman was ahead. Driving for that line. Striving not to be caught…

…right until the last stride of the race.

Scott leaned. Adeleke leaned further.

This one had gone right down to the wire.

No 4. Olatunde versus the clock

Men’s 100m final, European Senior Championships, Olympic Stadium, Munich, 16 August

He’d already done so much just getting to the final. The fastest overall, a 10.19 PB and an Irish U23 record to make it through the first round. Second place and an Auto Q in the semi-final. We’d seen what that meant to him. We knew what it meant to all of us. The first Irishman to make a 100m final at a major senior championship. But it meant so much more than that too. Ireland had arrived, and not just at this European Championships.

Just hours after the greatest race of his young life, Olatunde was lining up to do it all again. He’d drawn lane seven for the final, right next door to Lamont Marcell Jacobs, the Olympic Champion. European U23 Champion Jeremy Azu was to his outside.

The twenty-year-old Olatunde got out safely. But Jacobs was pulling clear of the field. It’s the point which so much can go wrong. Olatunde looked to be last of the eight, but he wasn’t being left behind. This was going to be no disgrace. He remained composed. And then he found something. He dipped for the line as if he’d done this a thousand times before.

Jacobs was the clear winner. The title was his. 9.95. An equal championship best.

Zarnel Hughes took silver. He too dipping under 10 seconds.

There had been daylight between those two and the rest of the field.

The moments ticked on slowly as, one-by-one, the times appeared on the scoreboard.

Azu in third. 10.13 PB. Time for the Welshman to unleash his joyous celebration.

Ján Volko, Slovak Republic, 10.16 in fourth.

This was going to be tight.

Mouhamadou Fall, France, fifth in 10.17.

Dammit! Had had let this one get away? Surely he was next?

More moments that seemed like minutes.

And then, there it was: 6. Olatunde 10.17.

The NR didn’t appear on the graphics, but we all knew what those numbers meant. Israel Olatunde, who started the year with a 10.41 best had been running PBs since May and had already picked up Irish U23 records in June, July and August. Now he was the fastest Irishman of any age.

What a stage to do it on!

Olatunde, too, had arrived.

No 3: A game of cat and mouse

Men’s 5000m, Irish national Senior Championships, Morton Stadium, Santry, 26 June

The Irish Championships always seems to throw up a humdinger of a battle or two, especially in the men’s distance races; lads demonstrating just how special national titles are, and what they’re willing to do to get their hands on one. But few 5000m races have ever been as exciting as the one witnessed in Santry on 26^th June.

Twenty-two of Ireland’s best distance runners. Twelve-and-a-half laps of the track. A startlist that actually resembles the entry list that got us excited during the week.

Darragh McElhinney already has 13.17.17 to his name, and the European Championship qualifying mark. Hiko Tonosa is the national cross country champion, a title he won in a sprint finish over McElhinney in the park next door last November. Efrem Gidey, the 2019 European U20 Cross Country silver medallist is back from injury and reminded us of his potential when he finished 6^th in the 10,000m at the European Cup in May. Paul O’Donnell, too, is an athlete in form.

Away they go.

900m in. Gidey takes the lead. The rest follow.

1200m. Gidey increases the pace. McElhinney and Tonosa lead the chase.

1600m. They main contenders are back together. O’Donnell and Jake O’Regan hanging on.

The pace drops again. Pierre Murchan and Keelan Kilrehill reattach themselves.

Halfway. There’s still a group of seven.

3000m gone. Gidey, forever dictating the pace, starts to pile it on.

1600m to go. It is down to just four.

1200m to go. Gidey, McElhinney, Tonosa are bunched together. O’Donnell, again, hangs on. 

800m to go. Three remain. Gidey is still out front, pretty much where he’s been from the start. But he’s not the one in charge now. He probably never was. McElhinney moves out onto his shoulder. Tonosa is tucked in behind them on the kerb. He has shown nothing yet.

700m to go. McElhinney looks impatient.

600m to go. But still he waits.

Still Tonosa shows nothing.

500m to go. McElhinney comes wide ready to strike. He glances to his inside, checking where Tonosa is. Waiting for his move. Again and again he checks. He waits. If Tonosa wants this now, he’ll have to come the long way round. He’ll have to make the first move. Gidey still has the lead.

300m to go.

McElhinney glances again.

Tonosa doesn’t flinch.

280m to go.

It’s time.

McElhinney makes the first move. A fast, decisive one. Out past Gidey. The others respond. Tonosa, too, goes past the young Clonliffe man, in hot pursuit. McElhinney is away. Tonosa follows.

150m to go.

The gap is 3 metres. Tonosa is fighting, gritting his teeth.

The crowd hold their collective breath.

Memories of national cross.

Is there still time for another twist?

100m to go.

McElhinney glides. Tonosa chases.

50m to go.

It’s all over. McElhinney was ready this time. He is not to be caught.

Another title for the collection.

No 2: Sub-2 by two

Women’s 800m, Belfast Irish Milers Club meet, Mary Peter’s Track, Saturday 15^th May

World class female 800m runners is not something Ireland has traditionally been renowned for. But the new generation are cut a bit differently. 1500m runners stepping down. 400m runners stepping up. Two lap specialists finally fulfilling potential. All with a belief they belong here.

It was the first major domestic race of the season and Eamon Christie had gathered some of the best around, arranged a pacemaker, and given them the stage.

Ciara Mageean, the Irish record holder, had just returned for altitude training in St Moritz. She was going to test where her speed was at prior to a summer of championships. But just what kind of shape was she in?

Louise Shanahan had Olympic experience now at this distance and had gone into last winter knowing that she had to step it up a level if she’s going to be competitive internationally. She’d finish 2nd over 1500m at the British University Championships at the beginning of May, and ran 55.88 for 400m at the Oxford v Cambridge varsity the weekend before. Could she combine that speed and strength over two laps?

We were about to find out.

They set out at a brisk but sensible pace, the field gently strung out. Mageean, keen to keep things moving, pulled up alongside the pacemaker 380m in. Shanahan followed. They hit the bell bang on the minute mark. Four athletes were away around the bottom bend: Mageean, Shanahan, Danish athlete Marissa Damink and Jenna Bromell each a stride or two apart. Mageean pushed on. Shanahan, shadow-like, followed. With 200m to go, she’d entered Mageean’s airspace. 100m to go, she pulled level. Mageean fought back. But Shanahan had another gear. She pulled away.

1:59.42 for Shanahan. Negative splits. A new Irish record.

Mageean hung on for 1:59.86.

We’d waited a lifetime for a sub-2 800m runner. Now we had two in one race.

 

No 1: Morton Mile Classic

Morton Mile, Morton Games, Morton Stadium, Santry, Saturday 2^nd July

The gun went. Australian Callum Davies sat in behind the pacemakers. Andrew Coscoran followed. The rest were strung out behind. There was even a fall. A typical paced circuit affair.

Until it wasn’t.

With 650m to go they all started getting involved. Darragh McElhinney was the first to close up and slot in behind Coscoran. Then went Nick Griggs. Cathal Doyle and Shane Bracken followed. With 400m to go Irish athletes filled 2^nd to 6^th place. With 250m they were all queueing up; getting into the ideal position from which to strike. 

Coscoran, the Olympic semi-finalist, and the fastest on paper. Doyle, who stunned everyone in the 1500m at the National seniors the previous week. McElhinney, a 5km specialist, with a lethal kick. Griggs who ran Coscoran close over the same distance indoors. Bracken, the national 1500m silver medallist; he too with a serious turn of pace.

We knew at this point we were definitely in for a treat, and not of the plain jelly and ice-cream variety. This was an assiette à dessert of Michelin quality.

With 200m to go, they were four abreast behind the Australian, each trying to measure their effort to perfection. None of them ready to show their cards just yet. Corscoran eventually pulled alongside Davies with 150m to go. Doyle made his move around the outside. McElhinney was wedged between them at this point, his normally sublime stride looking strained against the shorter-distance men. But he wasn’t giving this one up without a fight.

They were still four-wide into the home straight.

Then Doyle and Coscoran pulled clear. North Dub versus North Dub. Shoulder to shoulder. Stride for stride. Coscoran, first, looked to have the edge. Then Doyle levelled and inched ahead. The finish line was coming, but not quick enough. Doyle leaned. Coscoran dived. Nobody wanted to call this one.

There was a visible buzz around the track. They lads had put on a great show. The perfect finale to the 2022 Morton Games. Irish athletes would fill the podium. Five had run under 4 minutes. But who’d won? Doyle’s supporters were celebrating. Rushing onto the track to congratulate him. He didn’t look sure. Coscoran too was waiting.

And eventually the result appeared. Coscoran had edged this one; 3:57.09 to Doyle’s 3:57.11.

Coscoran looked full of energy. Buoyed by the win, chatting, reliving the dive.

Doyle looked utterly sickened. The sweet smell of victory now the sour aftertaste of defeat.

Andrew Coscoran, here’s your big fancy trophy. Cathal Doyle, thanks for taking part.

National Seniors Reimagined

Imagine if we could have the major international championships first, and then the national championships!

Imagine the introductions!

Ciara Mageean: Recent Commonwealth and European 1500m silver medallist. 

Mark English: Irish 800m record holder. European 800m bronze. 

Rhasidat Adeleke: Fifth in Europe. Ninth in the world. The one who, draped in an Irish flag, made a point of acknowledging the Irish supporters in the crowd after she broke the Irish 400m record in Munich. 

Israel Olatunde: the fastest ever Irishman. European 100m finalist at twenty.

Sarah Lavin: World Indoor and European outdoor finalist. 

Fionnuala McCormack: Ireland's most capped female. Seventh in Munich. Understated. Underrated. Underappreciated.

Efrem Gidey and Brian Fay: European top eight finishers. 

Louise Shanahan: European 800m finalist. Irish record holder.

Sophie Becker, Phil Healy, Sharlene Mawdsley, Roisin Harrison and Cliodhna Manning: European relay finalists along with Adeleke. Six of the 10 fastest 400m runners we've ever produced. Healy, Becker, Chris O'Donnell and Jack Raftery: World mixed relay finalists. Olympic mixed relay finalists in there too.

Andrew Coscoran. European 1500m finalist. World and Olympic semi-finalist. Morton Mile winner.

Kate O'Connor: Commonwealth silver medallist in the heptathlon.

Reece Adamola, Nicola Tuthill, Nicholas Griggs: World U20 finalists.

Darragh McElhinney and Sarah Healy: Irish U23 records each at three different distances outdoors in 2022.

Luke McCann: Irish senior 1000m records, indoors and out, in 2022.

Thomas Barr: 10-time Irish 400m hurdles champion. And the rest.

Michelle Finn, 8-time Irish steeplechase champion. European finalist.

The list goes on.

Imagine how easy that would be to promote. 

Morton Stadium would be packed!

For reasons I don't need to go into here, you could never hold your national champs after the majors, but there's got to be a way to capitalise on the enthusiasm created by such a successful Irish team. And it only needs to be done once. If Morton Stadium on nationals weekend is the place to be, then Morton Stadium on nationals weekend is where we'll be.

Morton Stadium on nationals weekend definitely did not appear to be the place to be in June 2022.

I arrived to a near empty stadium, coinciding with a seemingly intended and prolonged gap in the track programme on the Sunday afternoon. After two years missed due to the pandemic, I could hardly have felt more let down. Yes the pace eventually picked up. Great races were had. And apparently the evening finals slot came across well on tv. 

But it did not have me reaching for my diary and marking the date for next year's event (ok, that's not true; the likely date was already in my diary, but imagine for a moment that I'm not me!).

The event needed a good boost of energy from somewhere.

And the schedule? With 150 years of practice, you'd think someone would at least have nailed the schedule by now!

Something clearly has to change.

I appreciate how much effort goes into running not just the national seniors, but the whole series of national championships held weekend after weekend right across the summer, and how much hard work is done by unpaid officials and committee members. And there are costs to running such events which clearly are not being met by the dismal attendance figures. And I am hesitant to criticise those who are doing things that I am not willing to do myself. But I'm also too passionate about this to say nothing at all. As a reasonable compromise, I'm going to focus mainly on some possible solutions.

Santry needs people on the back straight. Without people on the back straight it's always going to look and feel empty. Good weather helps. But people on the back straight also need to be able to see the results and hear the commentary. Give them a reason to get out of the stand and surround that track.

Many of the people who could/might attend have or are children: recently retired and former athletes, young athletes, children who've watched the Olympics or Europeans on telly and have been nagging their parents to see some of these stars up close, the children of immigrants who would benefit from seeing positive integration into the Irish community... the list goes on. So attendance needs to be child friendly - either a Sunday finals slot which isn't after their bedtime, or a Saturday slot which somehow caters for the attention span of the average nine-year-old (or more importantly their parent).

And we need it to be a place for those who used to run to meet up with old acquaintances. To re-connect with the sport. To see the possibilities of where and how they could continue to be involved. Or, for once, to just enjoy the sport from the other side of the fence.

So, how about this?

Saturday afternoon - heats for pretty much anything that their needs to be heats for. Use pre-registration to ensure these run off as slickly as possible - you should know on Friday just how many heats you'll have in each event. Have commentators loaded to the gills with interesting facts and information about every single athlete competing. And really think about how you can best showcase your field events during this time. 

Have the final of whichever sprints need to be had on day one.

Then put barriers in lane three. Bring the crowds in around the track (nothing new or novel at this stage - and we know it works). And run off all the distance races one after another. The various races of the men's 5000m. The women's 5000m. The walks. The steeplechases. A junior race or two. Fill that back straight with cheer. The place could be hopping.

See, that would get me to Dublin on the Saturday. I might even stretch to a hotel room for the night, even at Dublin prices! Livestreaming viewing should also be through the roof, as those with a distance-running interest tune in not just from across Ireland, but across the world. Put your best commentators on commentary and reel in the punters. There may even be the potential for this to be shown live on tv. Imagine it was good enough to get people to say, 'Wait, I could attend more of this tomorrow, in person? Pass me the credit card now.' 

We could even cleverly showcase certain field events during this time, the men's and women's shot put for example. Use the crowd to give them a boost too.

We could do this better than any other national championship in the world!

The Sunday probably doesn't need to change that drastically. You'd be missing a few events - a steeplechase, the walks and some 5000m races. But there's no reason a condensed programme, without the silly gap in the middle, wouldn't work. Three rounds of the 100m might be an issue, but we'll work on that one too. 

Again, clever showcasing of field events would help. But people need to be able to follow what's going on with those. A big screen with live results would be the dream, but there's no reason someone with a giant whiteboard, some marker pens, and a little bit of humour couldn't work wonders on that front. 

Have people greeting those arriving who've never been to an athletics event before, and ensuring they have the best possible experience. Put together idiots guides. Tell them what they should look out for. Take them to the heart of the action. God, imagine if we could get athletes to do this. It would be a great use of any top athlete not able to race that weekend. 

Ok, maybe now I'm getting a little bit carried away.

And we need to decide if filling the stadium with children, or having the live tv slot well past their bedtime, is more important. But we need that stadium full. It doesn't matter if they're paying or not. Just get them there. And we only need to do it once. If it's a positive experience for all those who attend, then the next time it's will fill up itself.

Imagine the potential!

Unfortunately we can't have nationals after majors. But we could still have the best nationals in the world! After 150 years of trying, it's about time we did just that.

What if?

Imagine you're an elite athlete. You may well be. Or a former one. Now imagine in ten years' time the doping authorities have developed new doping detections methods, re-tested every sample in their possession, and found numerous positive samples. You're a clean athlete, and always have been, so your samples come back clean. But those of your competitors are not. You're due a number of medal upgrades.

Are you:

(a) Pissed off that you've been cheated all along

or

(b) Delighted that they've finally done something about all the blatant cheating?

Truth is you've probably been secretly upgrading yourself all along. You always knew these athletes were doping, and that there was a chance that they might be caught. The positives haven't come as a shock. Nor should they, if you've been paying any attention at all.

But what if they started catching those with apparent immunity? Those that you thought might be doping, but weren't as blatant. Those that are also clearly talented and not purely the product of chemical enhancement. The golden guys and girls that put the sport in the spotlight. The big names. The big stars. The ones you never thought would be caught. How do you feel now? Are you pissed?

Now, what if it is someone you never suspected? Perhaps someone you even like. 

What if it's someone you're associated with?

How do you feel now?

Now, consider you're not clean. You might not be. They've finally hunted you down?

How do you feel now?

Why has a sport of equals so quickly become a sport of haves and have-nots?

Over the coming week at the European Athletics Championships in Munich, athletes ranked in the top 12 in each of the sprint events, including hurdles, have been given a bye to the semi-finals of their respective event and a precious seeded lane for that second round.

This ridiculous format is just one in a long list of ‘innovations’ which favour the haves over the have-nots. But so widely ridiculed on the previous two occasions it was used (in 2016 and 2018), I was somewhat blindsided by its resurrection post-Covid. I can’t have been the only one.

But shame on me for not seeing this one coming. We shouldn’t, at this point, be surprised by the introduction and desperate retention of formats which add nothing to the sport and which do not have the athletes’ best interests at heart.

And so, those who have the fastest times so far this season get to sit out the first round in Munich.

And those just outside those top dozen spots, as well as those further down the field, get to warm up, go through the dreaded callroom, race, encounter the mixed zone, and warm down a whole extra time. And their best hope? Lane two or lane seven in the semi-final and not picking up an injury or worse in the process.

Remember, this group of athletes, too, includes those who didn’t quite make the automatic qualifying time, and who had to chase ranking points as well as times, finish high enough in their national championships to gain selection, manoeuvre whatever other ‘qualifying’ criteria their NGB put in their way, and, do it all by late June, because anyone who didn’t qualify for Worlds essentially sat through a month of minimal opportunities to gain either ranking points or qualifying times, let alone have a chance to earn a living from the sport.

God help anyone who picked up a minor injury or Covid in May.

The ranking-based quota system, which depends largely on athletes having enough sway to get them into Cat B or higher races, and championship formats with byes or repêchages disproportionately play into the hands of those who are at the top of their game, those who have already achieved, and potentially (dare I say it), those who are doping.

The quota system is not liked by athletes, is increasingly ignored (or adapted in some way) by national governing bodies, and does nothing to reduce the integrity issues which were used to sell it in the first place. Indeed, the opposite may well be true.

But yet, both the World and European federations carry on regardless. You’ve got to wonder what’s in it for them.

And the whole shambles doesn’t end there. There’s the thing about what shoes to wear – and not just because the sport continues to shoot itself in the foot. There’s the fact you can qualify for an Olympic 10,000m without ever stepping on a track, in a pair of shoes that are not allowed on the track.

And if I’m reading it right (forgive me if I’m not, it got a bit complicated recently), you can achieve a standard in any event, in a development (but not a prototype) shoe – wings optional - which isn’t yet available to your competitors.

And final 3 – whatever version of which we’re on by now – can get in the bin with the rest.

I’m not against innovation (ok, maybe I am a little bit), but anything you introduce shouldn’t divide one level of athlete from the next, shouldn’t corrode integrity, and shouldn’t make things more complicated.

You wouldn’t get away with any of this crap in the Community Games, so why do it at the top level?

Perhaps that could be the litmus test.