Some people will tell you it’s not all about the medals, and even beyond the record haul at the European Cross-Country Championships in Portugal this was another red-letter day for Irish athletes.
Before the first race was run in Lagoa, the popular tourist spot in the Algarve, Irish athletes had already won 21 international medals in 2025, surpassing the previous best of 14, from 2019. Four more won here – including an under-23 individual and team gold for Nick Griggs – has wrapped up the year in suitably dazzling style.
The senior men’s team made no secret of their desire to get back on the podium after 25 years, to share in the ribbons and bows, and they ran themselves into the silver medal position thanks to the courageous tactics of Jack O’Leary, Brian Fay and Cormac Dalton.
At just 16, no one had put any medal expectations on Emma Hickey in the women’s under-20 race, yet she came through to win bronze, just three places ahead of team-mate Anna Gardiner.
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In all, Ireland had nine top-10 individual finishers, including 10th for Fiona Everard in the senior women’s race, her best result by some distance, with Noah Harris also finishing 10th in the men’s under-20 race.
Callum Morgan (eighth) and Niall Murphy (10th) also backed up Griggs to win the under-23 team gold, bringing to 30 the number of medals Ireland has won on the European cross-country stage, starting with Catherina McKiernan’s victory in the women’s race in the inaugural edition back in 1994.
Griggs becomes the first Irishman to win an individual gold medal at any level in this event, his victory coming a year after he sustained a rare knee infection when finishing second. He missed three months of running, and it took him almost seven months to get back racing.
There was no denying the Irish team spirit either, with Morgan paying tribute to Griggs’s leadership after the under-23 race, where his individual gold medal ended his run of three second-place finishes.
“It’s unbelievable to see Nick finally get that gold. You see how hard he works for it, week in, week out,” said Morgan, who trains alongside him under coach Mark Kirk. “There was no doubt in my mind today that Nick was going to win gold, and it was just a matter of us backing him up, trying to get that team gold. It’s class.”
Ireland won gold with just 19 points, ahead of France (33) and Spain (43). Murphy added: “I remember on lap two, when me and Callum got together, I was like ‘we got this’, I knew we could get it from there.”
In the end, Ireland’s haul of two gold, one silver and one bronze left them fourth on the medal table, behind Spain, Belgium and Britain, and ahead of Italy, France and Germany. It also surpassed the previous best finish in 2019, when Ireland won two silver and two bronze.
It was clearly special for the Irish senior men, winning silver with 26 points, Spain (16) finishing first and France (37) third. Fay was part of the team that had finished fourth twice before, in 2021 and 2023, so his delight was unabashed.
“I knew coming into the last lap we were in contention,” he said. “People just kept shouting ‘medal, medal’, but I think this is long overdue. Hopefully we can stay among the medals now in years to come, especially with the under-23 team going so well.”
It was a hard race throughout. World 10,000m champion Jimmy Gressier of France was outkicked for gold by Spain’s Thierry Ndikumwenayo, with O’Leary just 20 seconds back in fifth.
Everard also ran smart to come through to finish 10th in the senior women’s race, won by Italy’s Nadia Battocletti.
“I was thinking I’d had the perfect season so far, so delighted after two years of disappointed to show that,” said Everard. “The course was tough, it was really hot, but you gain so much momentum when you’re passing people, it’s much better than when you’re being swallowed up.”
Hickey is young enough for three more editions of the under-20 race, the Wexford 16-year-old undaunted by the step up in competition here, the race won by rising British star Innes FitzGerald.
“I wasn’t expecting that at all,” said Hickey. “I didn’t know I’d be able to hold it the whole time, but I managed to keep it together to get a medal in the end, and a really good result for Ireland.”
The only real disappointment was expressed by Ireland’s mixed relay quartet, who ended up sixth after Cian McPhillips effectively ran into Laura Nicholson when passing the wristband between the second and third leg.
“I was struggling with the tight corners, and it was just unfortunate, coming in at full speed I couldn’t get out of Laura’s way,” said McPhillips, with Nicholson adding that she “just wasn’t prepared for Cian’s strength giving the handoff.”
Ireland results
Under-20 Women (Team sixth): 3rd Emma Hickey (United Striders AC); 6th Anna Gardiner (East Down AC); 56th Lucy Foster (Willowfield Harriers); 78th Eimear Cooney (Ace AC); 79th Abby Smith (Shercock AC).
Under-20 Men (Team fifth): 10th Noah Harris (Parnell AC); 13th Cormac Dixon (Tallaght AC); 36th Caolan McFadden (Cranford AC); 65th Finn Diver (Beechmount Harriers); 67th Tom Breslin (Clonliffe Harriers).
Under-23 Women (Team seventh): 11th Kirsty Maher (Moy Valley AC); 20th Amy Greene (Finn Valley AC); 25th Ava O’Connor (Tullamore Harriers); 26th Anika Thompson (Leevale AC); 34th Roise Roberts (Candour Track Club).
Under-23 Men (Team first): 1st Nick Griggs (Candour Track Club); 8th Callum Morgan (Candour Track Club); 10th Niall Murphy (Ennis Track AC); 29th Jonas Stafford (UCD AC); 48th Lughaidh Mallon (UCD AC).
Senior Women (Team eighth): 10th Fiona Everard (Bandon AC); 23rd Niamh Allen (Leevale AC); 36th Danielle Donegan (Tullamore Harriers); 44th Emily Haggard-Kearney (North Belfast Harriers); 50th Mary Mulhare (Portlaoise AC).
Senior Men (Team second): 5th Jack O’Leary (Mullingar Harriers); 10th Brian Fay (Raheny Shamrock AC); 11th Cormac Dalton (Mullingar Harriers); 16th Darragh McElhinney (Bantry AC); 19th Efrem Gidey (Clonliffe Harriers).
Mixed Relay Race (Team sixth): Eimear Maher (Dundrum South Dublin AC), Cian McPhillips (UCD AC), Laura Nicholson (Bandon AC), Andrew Coscoran (Star of the Sea AC).
Griggs becomes the first Irish men’s individual gold medal winner at any level in the event
