Andrew Coscoran has cross country gold in his sights when European Championships come to Dublin

The 2021 SPAR European Cross Country Championships will take place at the Sport Ireland Campus on Sunday, December 12th.

Andrew Coscoran is hoping Ireland can make home advantage count at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Dublin this December. Picture: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

Andrew Coscoran believes Ireland can go for gold at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Dublin this December.

The likes of Britain, Spain, and France could all field high-calibre teams but Coscoran feels they may not be focused on the mixed relay when the event takes place at the purpose-built course on the Sport Ireland Campus in Abbotstown.

Ireland could well field a very strong mixed relay team of its own, possibly made up of Ciara Mageean, Sarah Healy, Luke McCann, and Coscoran himself. And it would be one competing in front of a home crowd shortly before Christmas.

“If we put out all our best people… we could actually have a good shout of getting a medal, maybe even getting a gold, because I think the other countries may not necessarily focus on it,” said Coscoran.

“So that might be an opportunity to capitalise on that.”

Ireland has found this event to be a profitable affair in the past, starting with Catherina McKiernan who won gold at the inaugural championships back in 1994, and through to a four-medal haul in Lisbon in 2019.

Coscoran is just over two months removed from the Olympics now, having caused a bit of a stir by qualifying for the semi-finals of the men’s 1,500m, and there has been no post-Tokyo lull for the Dubliner.

His track season finished up with a mile and a 1,500m in Italy. He followed that with a week off and another week of light jogging before resuming a training regime with an increased workload of up to 100 miles a week as he does the spadework needed for nationals.

If those go well then it’s on to the Euro Cross. So, while some athletes find the weeks and months after a Games to be a struggle, that’s clearly not the case here.

“We went over and made the semis. It was definitely a high coming home,” he said. “Yeah, I didn’t find it too bad. I think I bounced back off it quite well. The (training) group is there still and I took a week off.

“I was still showing up to training, having the crack with the guys, and then it was easy to get into training. I didn’t feel like there was too much of a crash after it, I was just back on it. We want to get to a level and we’re just keeping grinding it.”