There is something better than a silver medal, and it's not just a gold one. It's being told you finished fourth and got nothing - and then told sorry, you finished second. So goes the story of the silver medals for Ireland at yesterday's European Cross Country Championships.

Long before any starting gun was fired in Edinburgh the Irish women's team were thinking about medals. They'll think about these ones for a long time after. Sonia O'Sullivan and Catherina McKiernan have a bagful but it's the ones you win late in your career you cherish most. Rosemary Ryan and Ann Keenan Buckley don't win medals nearly as often but proved just as vital in helping Ireland win these.

All that was missing was the individual medal, perhaps even the gold, which O'Sullivan so craved. But rumours of Paula Radcliffe's demise have been greatly exaggerated and the European title has gone back to the British athlete, five years after her first. Still the best female distance-runner in the world - by a long way.

Radcliffe was at least challenged up until the last half mile by the talented young Turkish athlete Elvan Abeylegesse, formerly of Ethiopia. With Aniko Kalovics of Hungary also surpassing expectations to take third it meant O'Sullivan had to be content with fourth, 32 seconds behind Radcliffe. Not bad, though, for someone considered largely finished after the World Championships in Paris in August.

But it was a tale of two races. Team honours were deemed as precious as anything individual, one of the reasons Radcliffe had decided to run in the first place. It didn't take long for that to be decided, however, as the British quickly established a winning quartet over the testing 6.5km course. They had five in the top 12, a mere 25 points, and were posing for the team photo long before the other teams knew where they'd come in.

As it turned out, computing the next few team positions was like watching a game of roulette, not knowing what numbers might show up. Ireland were in second position after two of the four laps, but France and Portugal were on their heels. And then, well, the horror! Final scores: France 84, Portugal 84, Ireland 94.

At that point O'Sullivan was already talking to the assembled media, including live TV. "Well fourth place is a disaster," she started. And then, cut! Ireland are second. Reshoot the whole scene.

There was a simple error in the computerised results, measured by tags around the athletes' ankles. They had failed to pick up McKiernan, who was Ireland's fourth finisher, in 34th position. The wrong Irish score was based on the next finisher, Marie Davenport in 52nd place.

Obviously there are human eyes to back up the computers and the mistake was corrected around 10 minutes later. Between O'Sullivan (fourth), Ryan (13th), Keenan Buckley (a marvellous 27th) and McKiernan (in 34th, struggling a little after recent illness) Ireland had in fact scored 78 points - and were safe in the silver medals.

"Well I thought so," started O'Sullivan again. "I knew we were better than fourth. And it makes coming back from Australia totally worthwhile. Hopefully we can continue now to the World Cross Country next March. I want to go there again. And I think we've yet to all run really well on the day. We can still strive to do that."

Yet the performances of both Ryan and Keenan Buckley weren't far at all off their best. Ryan was as high as seventh at one point, and for Keenan Buckley, who turns 42 next month, it was yet another truly remarkable run.

"I'm just delighted we got into the medals because I thought we were coming away with nothing," said Ryan. "But I suppose it was hard on France. Sure they were waiting to go up for the medals. And we had to run past them and just say sorry. They were devastated."

For Keenan Buckley it was the perfect performance to end a long and distinguished international career: "You just have to call a halt at some stage," she admitted. "I said this event would be my last and I'm happy to retire with a silver medal."

Any chance of O'Sullivan upsetting Radcliffe ended just after the first lap of Holyrood Park, but she was never worse than fourth - and was determined to stay there.

"Once the gap opened and there were two other British girls around me, I started thinking there was no way I was going to let them past. No matter what.

"But when I went back to Australia I really wanted to run here, I wasn't sure it if it was worth coming back again. What confirmed it was watching the Irish rugby team in Australia. I remember that look in their eye, especially Keith Wood, and I wanted to get that feeling again of representing Ireland too. And cross country is the only real opportunity to run as a team."

Irish results on the men's side weren't all as memorable, though for 18-year-old Mark Christie the junior race was clearly the highlight of his career, his sixth-place finish displaying a real touch of class.