McElhinney learns from the past in best possible fashion

Darragh McElhinney (UCD AC) celebrates winning the 5000m at the Irish Life Health National Senior Track and Field Championships at Morton Stadium. Photo by George Tewkesbury/Sportsfile

For almost 12 laps it was a chess match – a cagey encounter filled with shadow boxing from three of Ireland’s best distance runners – but then with less than 300 metres to run it exploded. That was when Darragh McElhinney of UCD, via Glengariff, shot to the front ahead of Efrem Gidey and Hiko Tonosa.

At the National Cross Country Championships seven months earlier, the story had been much the same, with McElhinney hitting the front inside the last quarter mile but Tonosa playing his cards last – and best – to outkick him to gold. This time it was different, McElhinney leading Tonosa around the final turn at full pelt, the diminutive Ethiopian-born Tonosa unable to keep pace with the Corkman, and McElhinney powering clear to gold, allowing himself the luxury of an early celebration with 40 metres to run.