Courageous performance by Carroll in 5,000m final

MARK CARROLL may not have won a medal but he won a lot of admiration with his courageous performance in the men’s 5,000m final in which Alberto Garcia claimed a seventh gold medal for Spain in a contest that had everything.

One can only speculate what would have happened if Mark Carroll had not gone out on the penultimate lap totally detached from the five-man group that took control of the race when the field split a kilometre from the finish. He ran 77 seconds faster than the five man group on this lap to close the gap and set off on the final laps just a few strides behind.

He ran up to join them with 300m remaining but the sprint for victory had already begun, the effort had taken it’s toll and, despite a 60 second final lap he had to settle for sixth place when the Dutchman, Kamiel Maase, edged clear again to claim fifth. The Corkman’s time was 13:42.87 but it did not reflect his amazing and at times startling contribution to the race.