Tipperary athletes star on Irish team at European championships

The European Cross-Country Championships took place in Tilburg in Holland and it was brilliant to once again witness two Clonmel Athletic Club athletes, Sean Tobin and Kevin Maunsell, score on the Irish team for the second year in-a-row. 

The Irish team finished seventh in a very competitive race, with the elite of European distance runners competing. 

The 10.3 kilometres race involved seven laps of an energy-sapping course made up of mud, grass and mainly forest trails that had many twisty and sharp bends. After the earlier races, the muddy course became increasingly torn up in the rainy conditions by the time the senior men’s race took place. 

However these conditions didn’t deter Tipperary athletes Sean or Kevin, as both athletes were well focussed on the event. 

When the race started the pace was very fast, as every athlete tried to get a good position before the course narrowed after 150 metres and it was great to see both Sean Tobin and Kevin Maunsell to the fore right from the start. 

Sean led the Irish charge at the end of the first lap, lying 25th, with Kevin also in the same large group. 

On the second lap the course was beginning to tear up as athletes found it hard to get their footing, but this didn’t deter Sean as he made great progress over the next two laps when moving to 12th place as they went out on the fourth lap, while Kevin was running very well in 41st place with three laps to go. 

Sean continued this strong running and was vying with three other athletes for 9th to 12th places at the bell, with 1300 metres to go. 

Over the final lap the pace was relentless but as they emerged from the forest trail, Sean had moved well clear into 10th place and kept the pace going to finish 10th in 29 minutes 22 seconds, which was a sensational performance. 

This was just sheer brilliance by Sean and the best performance by an Irish athlete in this event since 2011. 

Sean, who finished 15th last year, was absolutely delighted with the progress he has made over the past twelve months, having to move from a professional set-up in America to establishing his own base in Ireland. Producing a performance like this speaks volumes about the confidence he has in his own ability. 

Sean’s said  after the race  “I knew there was more there last year. I came back from the NCAA, I had a long season, I think coming off the National Cross-Country Championships I was tired. 

“I made most of the recovery for the last two weeks. I came out, I had a solid race. I tried to stay as conservative as possible. We knew that the course would be challenging, the system felt great the whole way through, it was the legs that felt a bit like jelly, so I was always trying to be conservative. 

“A solid performance, we will take it for now and keep pushing forward.” 

To finish in the top ten at the European Senior Cross-Country Championships is a sensational achievement and when you see the calibre of athletes that finished in front and behind Sean it puts the achievement  into perspective. 

His finishing time of 29 minutes 22 seconds for the 10.3 kilometres course saw him finishing just over 30 seconds behind the race winner Filip Ingebrigsten of Norway, who broke the four-year Turkish reign when winning in 28 minutes 49 seconds. 

Kevin Maunsell (above) also had a fantastic performance and once again made great progress through the field, like last year in Samorin. 

Over the final three kilometres or so he began to motor over the now very testing course, moving into 38th place at the bell and he continued that strong and determined running especially over the final 800 metres, passing a number of athletes on the home stretch to finish a brilliant 34th in 30 minutes 11 seconds. 

Abbotstown was like a carpet compared to this course, so that speaks volumes about these two fantastic performances. 

It was brilliant to witness two such performances by club athletes against the cream of European distance athletes and immense credit is due to both athletes on two fabulous performances. 

The Irish support in Tilburg was fantastic and it was great to have such great support there from Clonmel from people including  Anthony Tobin senior, Amber, Conor, Paula and Tony, as well as Pat Breen. 

These two outstanding performances made the trip  well worthwhile. 

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