The smile said it all — a bright, bleary-eyed grin, Ciara Mageean’s eyes close to tears for reasons of a very different kind to what we had seen before.

Mark English has won bronze for Ireland at the European Indoor Athletics Championships in Glasgow, grabbing his third major Championship medal in the 800 metres.

Ireland has one realistic medal chance as 567 athletes from 49 countries line up for the 34th European Indoor Championships, which start tomorrow in Belgrade.