12th for Gidey, 13th for Coscoran in Euro finals

Ireland finished 10th on the medal table with their two golds and two silvers.

Efrem Gidey, left, and Brian Fay of Ireland compete in the men's 10,000m final at the 2024 European Athletics Championships at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Italy. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

In a race of huge depth, and significant quality, Efrem Gidey led the Irish charge home in the men’s 10,000m at the European Championships in Rome last night. The 23-year-old, a rising star of Irish distance running, finished 12th in 28:16.94 in a race won by Switzerland’s Dominic Lokinyomo Lobalu – a former member of the Athlete Refugee Team – in 28:00.32.

Gidey had finished sixth in this same race two years ago in Munich but given the strength in the line-up this time, that was always going to be a tall order for the Clonliffe Harrier, who was born and raised in Eritrea but who fled the conflict there in 2016, arriving in Ireland in 2017 and receiving citizenship in 2019.