NIALL MURPHY has brought a gold European medal back to Co Clare.
Murphy of Ennis Track was part of the Irish U20 team to win gold at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships held in Brussels on Sunday.
It started the day with a bang for Team Ireland with the superb team performance from the Men’s U20 team seeing them improve on last year’s silver medal.
Niall was the second Irish athlete home and finished ninth overall, five of the Irish athletes finished in the top thirty places. Nick Griggs took the bronze medal while Jonas Stafford finished tenth. Seamus Robinson (City of Derry Spartans AC), Shane Brosnan (An Riocht), and Harry Colbert (Waterford AC) completed the team.
Ennis pair, Oisin Spillane and Dean Casey were best of the Irish in the Men’s U23 race, they finished in 28th and 29th position respectively. In the senior men’s race, Clarecastle native Kevin Mulcaire finished in thirty seventh.
Fionnuala McCormack (Kilcoole AC) produced one of the all-time great Irish performances to finish fourth in the senior women’s race.
