It looked for large parts of this Euro under-23 cross country championships that, with the home crowd roaring him home, Darragh McElhinney was going to go on and win.
He’d said in the build-up that it’d be a scowl not a smile if he’d won silver but it’s still so rare to see an Irish singlet bossing these elite international cross country races that you didn’t know what to believe. But by half-way, Darragh McElhinney had us all believing.
The Cork youngster has had a bit of a nightmare this year through Covid rigmaroles and short straws but from the gun, he looked on the money here. Great Britain’s Charlie Hick is one of the best young cross country racers in the world and when finishing 4th in the NCAA championships just a couple of months ago, he proved exactly why he was the favourite here.
But with two kilometres to go, Glengarriff’s McElhinney had him in all sorts of bother. The UCD student played Gaelic football for Cork at underage level and by his smooth cruising style, by his easy navigation of the course’s muddy twists and turns, you could tell that this fella is much more than just a slogger.
We did it boys!
Darragh McElhinney, who won an individual silver, celebrates with team-mates Micheal Power (13th) and Keelan Kilrehill (6th) after they won the gold medal in the team event. pic.twitter.com/EtYbiLMRHk
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) December 12, 2021
He made the muck look like astroturf and the hills look harmless as, with draped tricolours haring from one Abbotstown corner to another, with just a kilometre to go he made another move at the front to send the home crowd wild.
The guts and determination of Sligo’s Keelan Kilrehill back in 5th did nothing to quieten the raucous mood as he battled his way through the pack to make the team dream a reality. When you consider that, back in 2015, with a broken back and fractured neck from a bicycle crash, Kilrehill was confined to a wheel-chair and was told he might never run again.
“That bone in my neck that I fractured: If that was broken I’d have been paralysed,” he says. “It was just fractured and took six weeks to heal, but if it was broken…” he said in an interview with Cathal Dennehy on the Irish Examiner.
He’s up and running now.
Behind him, the imposing figure of Dungarvan’s Micheal Power looked like a man who was never going to let anyone down.
By the end, Hick showed class and courage to stride up the home straight for gold but McElhinney chased him all the way home. Just listen to that for an Irish roar.
The Irish roar in full flow with the first individual medal 🥈 won by Daragh McElhinney @irishathletics at the @EuroAthletics Cross Country Championships at U23 level – team won 🥇 #FingalDublin2021 – Nothing beats being there!! pic.twitter.com/ib4ZDHJRrn
— Pierce O'Callaghan (@Pierceathletics) December 12, 2021
You had to laugh seconds later as with the information filtering through, Kilrehill ignored the stewards at the finish to let Micheal Power know that they’d won the team event.
The Ireland team have just won gold at the Euro under-23 cross country championships and nothing sums up the team's bond like Sligo's Keelan Kilrehill ignoring the stewards to hug Micheal Power and let him know that they'd won.
Magic. Hon the boys 🇮🇪🥇 pic.twitter.com/KI2MdmmjBb
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) December 12, 2021
Coming just an hour after the under-20 men’s team had taken the team silver, just a few minutes before Sarah Healy finished 5th in the corresponding women’s race, it feels like the right time to say that when it comes to cross country running, the Irish are on the way back.
