{"id":624794,"date":"2026-08-07T05:07:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T05:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/624794\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T05:07:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T05:07:19","slug":"skys-the-limit-for-several-irish-medal-hopes-at-the-europeans-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/624794\/","title":{"rendered":"Sky\u2019s the limit for several Irish medal hopes at the Europeans \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was travelling back from London during the week and picked up a copy of Athletics Weekly to read on the plane. It\u2019s the preview edition to next week\u2019s European Championships in Birmingham, with a nice breakdown of each event, plus the full daily schedule.<\/p>\n

With a record 47-strong Irish team making the trip, it\u2019s handy to have a hard copy of the schedule like that. It\u2019s going to be a busy week, starting with the opening session on Monday morning, which includes the heats of the men\u2019s 800m.<\/p>\n

Just like we saw at the World Championships in Tokyo last September, a few positive Irish performances in the opening couple of days can help build momentum. Maybe even inspire other athletes to bring out the best in themselves too.<\/p>\n

The men\u2019s 800m will provide the first look at our medal prospects. With Mark English<\/a> and Cian McPhillips coming into good form, there\u2019s certainly the potential for both to make the final. English has produced the fastest time in Europe so far this season and is looking to build on his two European bronze medals, from 2014 and 2022.<\/p>\n

If anything, at age 33, English has been running at an even higher level this year. McPhillips, as we know, exceeded expectations when he finished fourth in the World Championships last year. But with the heats and semi-finals to navigate, their only thought for now can be to take each round as it comes. At championship level, the 800m is a lot more about tactics than times. <\/p>\n

Interestingly, Athletics Weekly tipped English as one to watch in their event preview. No mention of McPhillips.<\/p>\n

\"MarkMark English goes into the 800m at the European Championships having run the fastest time in Europe this season. Photograph: Morgan Treacy\/Inpho <\/p>\n

The men\u2019s and women\u2019s 5,000m are straight finals and there\u2019s the possibility of a medal there too. The men are up first on Monday evening and Brian Fay already has the experience at this level, finishing eighth four years ago. Darragh McElhinney looked good when winning the national title last month and Nick Griggs ran well to finish sixth when representing Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth Games<\/a> in Glasgow last weekend.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s Sarah Healy<\/a> in the women\u2019s 5,000m, set for Tuesday evening. She\u2019s only run one 5,000m this year, with a time that ranks her third in Europe among the Birmingham starters. With a tactical race most likely in store, I think Healy has a great chance to battle for the medals in the closing stages. If she is still in contention, her 1,500m finishing pace is unlikely to be matched by many, apart from defending champion Nadia Battocletti from Italy.<\/p>\n

Healy will be back in the 1,500m later in the week, but this might well represent her best chance to make the podium. Most of the time, championship 5,000m running is a game of concentration, biding your time until the right moment to strike. Healy has shown that before when winning gold over 3,000m at the European indoor championships in 2025.<\/p>\n

Two years on from winning silver in the 400m, Rhasidat Adeleke is in a different sort of place, lining up in the 200m having qualified at the last attempt at the national championships. She seemed to turn a corner with that performance and if she continues that trajectory, it\u2019s possible for her to make the final.<\/p>\n

The top-12 ranked athletes in the sprint events all get a bye straight to the semi-finals and she\u2019s just inside that. That means three semi-finals of eight athletes, with the top two and two fastest losers making the final. Part of it will come down to the draw and in some ways, you\u2019d wonder would she prefer to have a run in the first round.<\/p>\n

The British athletes will be strong, including Dina Asher-Smith, who didn\u2019t run in the Commonwealth Games. They\u2019re taking it seriously but there\u2019s not a massive amount of depth. Adeleke has always had the speed for this event and if she can get under 22.5, that should get her into the final at least. After that, anything looks possible.<\/p>\n

\"SharleneSharlene Mawdsley’s medal hopes at the European Championships in Birmingham hinge on her recovery from a hamstring injury. Photograph: Mark Kavanagh\/Sportsfile <\/p>\n

Sharlene Mawdsley still has a nervous few days ahead to see if she can fully recover from the hamstring injury she picked up at the national championships. She\u2019s been doing everything she can to rehab in time and will likely leave it as close as possible to her 400m semi-final on Thursday afternoon for a final decision. Mawdsley is experienced enough to know what her true chances are.<\/p>\n

Like Adeleke, she gets a bye into the semi-finals. It\u2019s different for a sprinter, compared to a distance runner. She probably won\u2019t lose any speed if she\u2019s maintaining as much fitness as possible. All she can think about for now is that semi-final \u2013 run it like a final. Then she has two days to recover before the final on the Saturday evening, if she can make it.<\/p>\n

All eyes later in the week will fall on Kate O\u2019Connor<\/a>, who will be back in heptathlon action just two weeks after winning gold at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. This is her first European outdoor championships and she\u2019ll be looking to build on that fast-growing medal collection, having won two gold, two silver and two bronze over her last six successive competitions, indoors and outdoors.<\/p>\n

The competition in Birmingham will be a lot deeper compared to what O\u2019Connor faced in Glasgow, with World Indoor champion Sofie Dokter from the Netherlands, her teammate Emma Oosterwegel and Annik K\u00e4lin from Switzerland, the world leading scorer for 2026.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor knows she can be right up there again and is every bit as good as everyone else. She\u2019s maybe a little weaker in the hurdles compared to those other three, but she just needs to stay close to them. She always rises to the occasion and even though things weren\u2019t perfect in Glasgow, she was getting better over the course of the events and has had plenty of time to recover.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure her ultimate goal this season was always Birmingham. She\u2019s set to battle it out for another medal right until the end.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m also excited to see Andrew Coscoran in the men\u2019s 1,500m, along with Cathal Doyle, where tactics will also be key to progressing to their final. Nicola Tuthill has also been very consistent throughout the season in the hammer. At the age of 22, breaking into the top eight is a very realistic target for her. It\u2019s going to be a busy week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I was travelling back from London during the week and picked up a copy of Athletics Weekly to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[76],"tags":[45670,47527,18,69966,19,17,10889,10888,8302,10886,10883,132],"class_list":["post-624794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-andrew-coscoran","tag-cian-mcphillips","tag-eire","tag-european-athletics-championships","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kate-o-connor","tag-mark-english","tag-rhasidat-adeleke","tag-sarah-healy","tag-sharlene-mawdsley","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117052496938552466","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}