Athletics: The clouds lift as silver ladies dance a jig in Edinburgh
Ten minutes earlier it was the Irish team members who were puzzled after surrendering a slender but desperately defended lead to Portugal and France in a fiercely fought last lap.
Then it was discovered Catherina McKiernan, who finished 34th, had been overlooked in the calculations and the error was rectified at the last minute.
All the stars had assembled in Edinburgh and now the dream had been realised as they finished second to Great Britain led by Paula Radcliffe and ahead of the other medal favourites, Portugal, France and Russia.
Radcliffe was adding two more gold medals to her collection to underscore her rating among the world’s best distance runners.
The Irish women and their supporters were astonished at the team result on the scoreboard which placed them fourth: “That would have been disastrous if the girls did not get medals,” said a delighted Sonia O’Sullivan as the post race interview turned from gloom to glee.
After losing touch with the leading group, O’Sullivan was happy to run for the team medals as she had promised, clung on desperately to fourth position, content to leave the struggle for the medals to Radcliffe, Elvan Abbylegesse of Turkey and the Hungarian, Aniko Kalovics.
“I found myself with two English girls around me and there was no way either of them was getting past me.”
Behind her Rosemary Ryan was running the race of her life, hanging on desperately to eighth place for much of the race before eventually settling for 13th. Marie Davenport was placed 26th, just ahead of Catherina McKiernan.
The evergreen Anne Keenan-Buckley - just a few weeks short of her 42nd birthday - got into the battle early on and, after losing a little ground in the middle of the race, she began to pick them off again as Marie Davenport faded and ended up third Irish woman across the line in 27th place.
“This is it,” she said. “I cannot go on forever. I have a bronze medal from the world championships and now I have fulfilled another ambition.”
Marie Davenport finished 52nd and Jolene Byrne 57th.
“This was important to me,” O’Sullivan said: “When I went back to Australia I was not sure I really wanted to run.
“What made up my mind was watching the Irish rugby team perform in Australia. When they played Australia I saw the look in their eyes. Keith Wood had fire in his eyes and I wanted us to go out there like that today. I mean this is our only opportunity in an individual sport to compete as a team.
“I went to the game in Melbourne when Ireland played France and I got goose bumps on my neck when I stood in the aisle and they played the Irish anthem.
“I said I wanted to feel that one day when we win a team championship and this was it.”
“Hopefully it will inspire the younger athletes and that they will come into the team and I’ll still be there to guide them.”
Her parting shot was a promise to come back for the world championships in Brussels next March when Catherina McKiernan, will also l be back, along with Rosemary Ryan.
McKiernan, winner of the title in 1994, came off a bout of ‘flu to compete and admitted she was happy just to cross the finish line. “I thought it was just good to be alive,” she said.
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