Brian Fay out to banish 'mediocre' spell as European Cross Country offers chance to reset

EUROPEAN CROSS: Brian Fay from Raheny Shamrock A.C celebrates winning the Senior/U23 Men race. Picture: ©INPHO/Andrew Paton

“To be very blunt,” says Brian Fay, “I feel like I’ve been a mediocre runner in the last six or seven months.” 

And Fay has no interest in being mediocre. Four years ago, the Dubliner finished 10th at the European Cross Country in Dublin. Two years ago, he ran the quickest 5000m in history by an Irishman (13:01.40). But since then, things have plateaued, and Fay hopes that at tomorrow’s Euro Cross in Lagoa, Portugal, the fruits of his labour will be there for all to see.

“I believe I can be a whole lot better than what I’ve achieved so far,” he says. “I feel on my day I can compete against these guys so would hope to be top-six, top-five. If I can (be) top-10, I’d be buzzing, but I’m a different calibre athlete to four years ago when I came 10th.” 

It’s 25 years since Ireland won a medal in the senior men’s race, and Fay was part of teams that finished fourth in 2021 and 2023 – fine efforts, but ones that were largely forgotten. Ending that drought is foremost on his mind.

“We are a cross country nation,” he says. “We’ve sent some good teams to Euro Cross the last few years and it’s a shame we haven’t produced anything in the senior men’s. We have a very high-calibre and depth of athlete at the moment, so it’d be nice to come away with something to show for ourselves.” 

By his own standards, this was a mediocre year – one that seemed to turn a corner last month when Fay came from behind to win his first national cross country title. “I haven’t won (many) races this year and it’s special, it means something,” he says. “I know nationals is only a domestic field, but you've still got to do it on a national scale before you do it on a European scale, and I wasn't doing it on any scale really for a couple of months.” 

Fay’s track season had some glimmers of light – a 13:12 5000m in May and a 13:08 in July – but he only scraped into the World Championships in Tokyo via his world ranking and his performance there was poor, clocking 13:31.12 to trail home 17th in his heat.

Since last year, he’s been coached by Australian Nic Bideau, having departed his previous coach Feidhlim Kelly on the build-up to the Paris Olympics, with Fay now spending much of the year in Melbourne. In their end-of-season debrief, Fay and Bideau were on a similar page about where things had gone awry in Tokyo.

“I kind of raced myself a little bit too much towards the end of the season,” says Fay. “Also, and that was more my own doing, I opted to do an awful lot of altitude training. It's great to do it, but I do think it cooks you and stuff.” 

They’ve tweaked their approach to 2026, with Fay keen to have a strong cross country season – picking out the Europeans and next month’s World’s in Florida as big targets, aware that his best track seasons have come off the back of such foundations. Fay is also considering a return to the steeplechase – which he hasn’t done since 2022. 

“The Irish record is 8:24, I ran 8:29 (in 2021) and I feel like I'm a different athlete (now). If I can clean up my jumping, I feel I'll be OK in it. Also, I feel like the Europeans is a little bit open to try win a medal.” 

Disappointments at some majors have left their mark, but Fay is desperate to avoid repeating them. “I'm 27 now, I think I've dialled in a bit more where I'm like, ‘I don't have that many more good years left under me, I may as well go full tilt and try and do everything right.’” 

He’s put a renewed focus on gym work while steering clear of altitude for the time being. Fay logged 100 miles a week in recent months while Down Under but he’s been back in Dublin in recent weeks, enduring the harsh weather and linking in at times with his old training partners at Kelly’s Dublin Track Club. 

“Those races in Australia, they don't mean anything to me,” he admits. “They mean something to the Aussies but for me, it was always just trying to get ready for nationals and just get hard efforts in that would bring me on for Euro Cross.” 

He's seen clear progress in training. He hopes it will show up on race day. Fay knows tomorrow’s course will be “rock hard”, the opposite to what he faced at nationals, but having spent two years in the NCAA at the University of Washington, he’s well used to such conditions. No matter how it’s going individually, he’ll try to extract the absolute maximum for his team, for his country. 

“All these guys, they're hungry to try and win a medal. Cross means something to us. When you move away and come back, you realise how much emphasis we put on cross as a nation. So yeah, obviously, you want to win a medal.” 

The reduced men’s distance of 7.5km means it will start out fast and probably never let up, but that suits Fay just fine. “It probably is more like a track race than a traditional cross race, but I feel like I have the pedigree and calibre to race well,” he says. “I'm pretty confident.”