McGonagle: 'Talent is there to bring medals'

Patsy McGonagle is backing Ireland's track and field stars to be in the medal mix at next month's European Championships in Gothenburg.

The Ballybofey man is coach of the 29-strong Irish team for the Swedish showpiece and he remains optimistic that his charges can add to the two silver medals won by Sonia O'Sullivan at the last Europeans in Munich in 2002.

Asked about Ireland's medal prospects at the team announcement press conference in Dublin today, he replied: "If you want to go on statistics then Alistair Cragg is the leading 5000m runner in Europe at this time.

"We also had an excellent performance from Roisin McGettigan who smashed the Irish record in the 3000m steeplechase over the weekend.

"We have David Gillick who ran a personal best at the Nationals yesterday. He is the European Indoor champion and Derval O'Rourke is coming to these championships as a World Indoor champion.

"So there are a lot of positives there and the talent is certainly there to bring home some medals."

The 58-year-old McGonagle reckons that the 43,200-capacity Ullevi Stadium, which will be full to the brim with athletics-mad locals, could bring out the best in Ireland's elite athletes.

"The stadium is a modern one, it is the venue that hosted the World championships in 1995, and that was a great success for them.

"It's in a city that is really switched on to the sport of athletics so there should be big crowds at each event," he surmised.

"The add-on now is that the Sweden is a major player in World athletics - they have a number of world champions and record holders and the awareness will be massive.

"So it's obviously an opportunity for Irish athletics to put itself in the window. There will be a significant amount of press coverage so it's a great opportunity for the athletes to go and make a name for themselves."

A former trainer of the Donegal senior footballers, McGonagle added that the Irish team was purely selected on form as "the European championships are not a walk in the park so you need current form."