Nick Griggs embraced his "full circle" moment after capturing the gold medal in the men's under-23 race at the European Cross Country Championships in Portugal on Sunday on a memorable day for Irish athletics.
Griggs was just 16 when he delivered a shock gold on the track in the 3000m race at the European Under-20 Championships in Estonia in 2021, but his subsequent attempts to top the podium at continental level have been marked by a series of near misses.
The Tyrone man arrived in Lagoa having secured silver medals in four previous European age group championships, suffering plenty of bad luck along the way.
A late stumble in 2022 saw him edged out for gold in the the U20 race in Italy in 2022, while last year's runner-up berth in Turkey was secured despite suffering a shuddering fall at the very beginning of the race that subsequently led to a serious knee injury.
No wonder Griggs, who turns 21 this week, has previously described himself as "the nearly man" of the competition.
However, while fate can be a cruel mistress, she is also a fickle one, and Griggs righted the wrongs on Sunday as he scored in emphatic style clocking a time of 17 minutes and 47 seconds, for the 5.96-kilometre course, as he finished 12 seconds clear of his nearest pursuer.
As well as becoming the first Irishman to win an individual gold at the championships, eighth and 10th-place finishes for Callum Morgan and Niall Murphy saw the team secure gold in the team category for the age group.
Irish athletes secured four medals in total, with 16-year-old Emma Hickey belying her youth and inexperience to bag bronze in the women's under-20 race, while Brian Fay, Efrem Gidey, Cormac Dalton, Jack O'Leary and Darragh McElhinney finished second behind Spain in the men's senior team event.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Griggs said: "It's unreal. I can't believe it, to be honest. I'm still riding the wave of yesterday.
"The entire Irish team, we all went out there and did our country proud.
"Came home with four medals – two golds, a silver and a bronze.
"The camp is absolutely delighted, so we're all buzzing to return home to Ireland today."
Reflecting on the fallout from the championships 12 months ago, he added: "I get a bone infection after this race last year.
"I came second and I fell at the start, so I got a bone infection.
"They don't really know what happened, but it was a bit of a hassle and I kind of missed three months of training
"It wasn't great, but I was really proud that me and my team managed to come back and still put together a really good year, despite what happened.
"It was like a full circle moment from what happened last year, it's come full circle, and I've finally got the win and put all those demons to bed.
"It's really, really, special.
"I'll maybe celebrate a little bit this week, have a bit of a down week and then it'll be straight back to it for the indoor season."
Grigg's dominance was such that Mark Kirk could enjoy the closing moments in real time.
"I was about 250 metres from the finish," coach Kirk said, quipping: "He came past me and he had a fairly comfortable lead, so I sort of had it in my head that even if he tripped and fell like he did a couple of years ago, I think he still would have managed to pick himself up and get the win!
"He's out of this world. I think he's a one off. I don't think we'll ever see anything like it in Ireland again for sure."
Griggs will now turn his attention to the indoors arena in early 2026, with Kirk adding: "He has some big ambitions for races in the States.
"There is an indoor track in Boston which has a great reputation of being a very fast track, so we'll be hoping there will be some quick times in the end of January, early February."
