Irish women dig deep to capture team bronze after Britton finishes sixth

Whoever designed the European Cross Country course in Samokov was not thinking of a 34-year-old mother of two. Melting snow in some parts, treacherously muddy in others, and constantly twisting and undulating, there must have been moments when Ann Marie McGlynn was wondering what on earth she was doing there.

She must have been questioning the sense in coming out of retirement, three years ago, with two infant children, and her own business. She was running somewhere down the field, and must have been doubting what was left to run for, the 1,350m altitude making every breath harder.

But McGlynn kept at it, kept picking off runners, and towards the end of the utterly exhausting 8km course, made one last surge to finish in 46th position. That, perhaps more than the three Irish women who finished well ahead of her, is the reason she’s now wearing a European team bronze medal round her neck.

“I think I might go back into retirement,” said McGlynn with a beaming smile.

In winning that European bronze with the Irish women’s team, McGlynn has finally got some just reward after a long career that started back in her schoolgirl days in Tullamore, when, as Ann Marie Larkin, she bagged herself several junior and underage titles on the track and in cross country.

Competitive element

Then, after graduating from UCD, she dropped out of the sport completely, marrying Trever McGlynn, a former sprint hurdler, and moving to his hometown of Strabane. Later, and as a way of dealing with some of the stress brought on by the illness suffered by her second child, Alfie, McGlynn started running again. Later again (and with son Alfie fully recovered), she joined Letterkenny AC as a way of her reviving the competitive element.

Such was her impressive return to form (including a bronze medal over 5,000m at this year’s National Championships) McGlynn was named Irish women’s captain for Samokov. That renewed enthusiasm and motivation never once abandoned her here.

“I was actually quietly confident coming into the race that we could win a medal,” she said.

Kept fighting

“I said it to a few people during the week. Because every one of us on the team are fighters, and I just felt if we kept fighting and were in there with any chance of a medal, then we could do it.

"But we all had to keep running through the line, and that's what we did. I know Fionnuala Britton is a little disappointed to finish sixth, but it's still an amazing run, and we've been very lucky to have her leading the team. But I really wanted to be on this team, and to captain my country is such an honour."

The prospect of an Irish team medal only came into focus when Britton's hopes of an individual medal fell apart: the former two-time champion, looking to improve on her fourth-place finish last year, certainly gave it everything, but in the end had to surrender to the undeniable superiority of the athletes ahead of her – particularly the Great British duo of Gemma Steel and Kate Avery, who ran away from everyone around the 6km mark, gliding, floating, flying.

Steel eventually nailed the outright victory, although both were given the same time of 28:27.

For a while, it seemed Britton was in a battle for the bronze with defending champion Sophie Duarte of France, before two African-both runners, Meref Bahta, formerly of Eritrea and now running for Sweden, came through to clinch third, ahead of Almensh Belete, the former Ethiopian now running for Belgium. So Duarte took fifth in 28:58, with Britton sixth in 28:59.

“I just felt I never got going, and was trying to hang on,” said Britton, who at age 30 is now likely to prioritise the marathon in future years. “Even on the last lap, the two British girls were gone, but I had to fight on for third. That bronze would have been my gold medal. I just felt I couldn’t finish fourth again (for what would have been the third time). Still to end up sixth is disappointing, especially after finishing fourth last year. But then again winning the team bronze medal does make up for some of it.”

Satisfying

It was close, their team tally (with Sara Treacy in 12th and Michelle Finn in 23rd) just one point less than France, 87 points to 88, but on a day when there wasn’t much else to cheer about from an Irish perspective, it was perfectly satisfying.

The senior men’s race was dominated by three former Africans – two Kenyans and an Ethiopian – with Arikan Kemboi eventually winning gold for Turkey. Best of the Irish was Paul Pollock, the Belfast doctor, in 22nd place, with the men’s team finishing up a respectable sixth overall. The only Irish athlete who managed to make the top-20 across the four underage races was Dublin’s Kevin Dooney, who ran well to finish 18th in the under-23 race.