Ireland finish sixth for best ever Euro Team performance

Kevin Ankrom, Athletics Ireland's High Performance Director, was a pleased man after watching Ireland deliver their best ever finish of sixth at the European Athletics Team Championships (1st League) in Heraklion, Greece today.

Ireland scored 261.5 points, falling one position from overnight as their bid to gain Super League promotion stalled. However, they bettered their seventh place finishes from 2013 and 2014 and Ankrom gave a very positive assessment afterwards.

"It was a great Championships for us, we came here targeting a best ever performance at this event and we achieved that. It was a great success for the entire team and I am very proud of them," he said.

"To come sixth and accumulate more points than we have ever done before is a successful team performance for us. It was a combined team effort with points coming in events we previously haven't scored in."

The 1st League was won by the Czech Republic with a score of 351 points from second-placed Greece (327) and the Netherlands (299.5) in third. All three teams will advance to the Super League in 2016.

Mark English, one of Ireland's big hopes in Greece, delivered 11 points for a second place finish in the 800 metres (1.48.28), with an excellent run from North Down's Ben Reynolds in the 110m hurdles also placing him second. He clocked a season's best of 13.73 seconds.

Kerry O'Flaherty (Newcastle AC) and John Travers (Donore Harriers AC) notched third place finishes in their respective 1500m and 3000m races, and there were fourths for Maria McCambridge in the 5000m (16.09.30) and Megan Tice, the Finn Valley high jumper who cleared 1.80m on her 'Team Ireland' debut.

To round off the weekend, the men's 4x400m team of Brian Gregan, Thomas Barr, Craig Lynch and Mark English came home in third (3.05.07) to add 10 points to Ireland's final tally.

The final standings and results are available here and here.