She came with her own considerable medal expectations and in the end the look of disappointment on the face of Fionnuala McCormack said it all.
There is no consolation in being so close in a race as long as the marathon, McCormack’s seventh place coming after another typically gutsy effort from the Irish woman who was running in medal contention until seven of the 42.1km remained as the athletics programme got underway at the European Championships in Munich.
At that point a lead group of six women slowly broke clear, McCormack detached by around 10m and try as she did she couldn’t reconnect. Something was a little off and in marathon running that’s inevitably magnified, although McCormack was making no excuses.
In a thrilling finish, Aleksandra Lisowska from Poland won the gold medal by six seconds, clocking 2:28:36 ahead of Matea Parlov Kostro of Croatia, with Dutch woman Nienke Brinkman holding on for the bronze just ahead of Germany’s Miriam Dattke, both given the same time of 2:28.52.
McCormack clocked 2:29:25, a season best, the championship also doubling as team race – Ann Marie McGlynn finishing 29th in 2:38.26, with Aoife Cooke 34th in 2:40.37, which gave Ireland a fifth place finish overall.
For the Wicklow mother of two, who turns 38 next month, those medal expectations were clear early on: she herself at the very front of the race, tracking the early leaders which included Britain’s Alice Wright and Nienke Brinkman from, McCormack determined it appeared to always hold that prime position.
“Disappointing is probably the only word I can use to describe it right now,” she said at the finish, just over half a minute off making the podium places. “It was tough out there. I suppose I expected more of myself so… Yeah, it’s not what I came here to do and I feel like I say that at a lot of championships but, I don’t know. Not really much else I can say.”
Last December, just four months after running the Tokyo Olympic marathon, McCormack produced a brilliant new lifetime marathon best by almost three minutes in Valencia, moving ever closer to the Irish women’s marathon record which has stood untouched for over 23 years.
On that occasion McCormack finished fifth best woman in 2:23:58, significantly faster that the 2:26.47 she ran in Chicago in October 2019.
“I was in a good place,” she added of her effort here. “I came here to get a medal and I did put myself into position to a get a medal through about 35k. I tried to cover the moves, not to panic, I don’t know but I thought it was unusual that there was nine people still in a pack at 35k.
“Sometimes you feel cursed but then again we probably weren’t going quick enough.”
The race started and finished at Odeonsplatz, after an initial loop of 2km, ran four 10km laps around the famous sights of Marienplatz, Viktualienmarkt, Isartor the Friedensengel through the city centre to the English Garden.
“I never really felt as comfortable as I knew I should,” said McCormack, the temperature rising notably throughout the race too. “I’m in shape to feel comfortable at those paces. Some of the time I did. I was very on-off. Sometimes I was like, ‘this is great’ and then two seconds later I was ‘oh my God’ but it was just one of those days.”
McCormack had finished 25th in the marathon staged in sweltering conditions 800km north of Tokyo in Sapporo, where she clocked 2:34.09 and will likely target her fifth Olympics in Paris in two years time.
The men’s marathon was won by Germany’s own Richard Ringer in equally thrilling style, his time 2:10.21, the sole Irish interest being Hugh Armstrong who finished 58th in 2:25:27.
Earlier out at the Olympic Stadium, Israel Olatunde ran a brilliant qualifying heat in the 100 metres, taking the win in 10.19 seconds – improving on his best of 10.24 and second now only to Paul Hession’s Irish record of 10.18 set back in 2007.
The 20 year-old Olatunde, though running in lane eight, was the fastest the morning heats and now joins Tuesday’s semi-final, where the top-12 ranked athletes this year have already progressed automatically.
In the shot put qualifying Eric Favors missed out on the final as he took 15th place in his group.
