Fionnuala McCormack just missed out on a medal at the European Cross Country Championships in Brussels.
The Wicklow woman finished well with a strong final lap in tricky conditions, however, she never really threatened the podium as she had too much work to do in the latter stages to hunt down the top three and finished fourth for a fifth time.
Caroline Bjerkeli Grovdal from Norway showed her class to take a comfortable victory, while there was a great battle for silver as Italy's Nadia Battocletti overtook Britain's Abbie Donnelly late in the race to finish in second place.
The two-time champion (2011, 2012) helped Ireland to an eighth-place finish in the team event.
It was another successful day at the European Cross Country Championships for Ireland, Nick Griggs winning a bronze medal that secured U-20 team gold while Fionnuala McCormack and the senior men were fourth in Brussels. pic.twitter.com/35Nz0AGWFF
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) December 10, 2023
Competing at her 18th European Cross Country Championships, the context of McCormack's result was made all the more impressive in that only last weekend she secured the qualifying time for her fifth Olympics at the Valencia Marathon, less than six months after giving birth to her third child.
McCormack said: "It’s hard to sum it up. It’s never easy to come fourth and I’ve done it so many times at this stage. I really wanted to be on that podium again so I’m going to have to come back again now".
"You want to get on the podium so it’s a bit disappointing, but it was great to be in contention and to be chasing down the medals. The support out there was unbelievable, and it was a great race to be a part of. I had in my mind that I really wanted to do this, and my preparations were the same as two years ago so I was happy with my recovery and I think the race went pretty well".
In the men's senior race, Cormac Dalton secured a top-ten finish with an excellent run at Laeken Park.
The Mullingar man took eighth place in a strong field, which was won by France's Yann Schrub, while Norways Magnus Myhre powered home to take silver ahead of local favourite Robin Hendrix.
Dalton's fine run put Ireland in contention to take a team medal and while they were in the bronze position going into the final lap, they were eventually edged out into fourth place, overtaken by a strong Norwegian unit.
Earlier, Nick Griggs secured a well-earned bronze medal.
The Tyrone man, racing in the Under-20 competition, impressed en route to taking third place, coming in behind winner Axel Vang Christensen from Denmark and Dutch silver medallist Niels Laros.
Griggs' performance inspired Ireland to gold in the team event as they had three finishers inside the top ten on the heavy track, Niall Murphy and Jonas Stafford finishing ninth and tenth respectively.
Seamus Robinson was 26th, Shane Brosnan was a further two places back, and Harry Colbert came in 40th.
Griggs said: "It was a pretty special one. It was a really tough battle out there with the leaders up front and I wanted to win, but I can't complain with bronze in those tough conditions given what happened at nationals.
"To lead this team home to a gold is so special after the last two silvers so we’re all delighted".
Elsewhere, there was also a strong team performance in the women's U20 as the Ireland team were placed fifth with Anna Gardiner the best performer in seventh, while Kirsty Maher was 12th.
In the women's Under-23 race, Danielle Donegan was best of the six-strong team, finishing inside the top ten in eighth place. The team finished 11th overall.
Oisin Spillane was the best of the Irish contingent in the men's U23 race, finishing 28th. The six-man team placed 10th overall.
Ireland have now won 14 medals over the last four editions of these championships, compared to the 13 medals won in the previous 25 editions.
