Britton reminded once again just how lonely fourth place is

ATHLETICS:THERE ARE different ways of approaching championship 10,000m, and as brave and determined as Fionnuala Britton's effort was, running from the front ultimately left her in the cruellest of places.

All that defeated her in the end was all that she couldn’t leave behind. Over 25 laps, with a European title on the line, and nothing to suggest it would be easily won, Britton took herself to the front not because she needed to but wanted to – because it was the only way she could run.

Then, when it came to eight laps to go, when Portugal’s Dulce Felix suddenly moved to the front with the sort of decisive surge that straight away suggested she wasn’t coming back, Britton fell into the battle for second, then third. When the laps eventually counted down to zero she was fourth.

She had effectively been in front for half of the race – taking charge after five laps, and staying there until Felix’s winning surge. For the last two miles she fought with Britain’s Jo Pavey and Ukraine’s Olha Skrypak, twice moving between fourth and second, before over the last four laps her chances of a medal of any colour slowly disappeared.

Britton’s reaction after crossing the line in 32.05.54 – 51 seconds down on Felix – said it all. She briefly put her hands on her knees, then after a quick wave to Irish supporters in the stand in front of her, jogged straight towards the exit – not quite quickly enough to hide some tears.

“I’ve just done TV, radio, now you, and I’m getting more disappointed each time,” she said in the mixed zone. “Because the more I think about it the more I know that wasn’t how it was meant to finish.”

Truth is Britton couldn’t have given much more – her only regret, perhaps, that she didn’t press that little bit harder to get away. “When you’re at the front like that, you do need to push it on, and I wasn’t quite doing that enough. There’s no point running from the front unless you pull away from people, otherwise you’re just a sitting duck, really.

“Then the last thing you want when people go by you is drop back, people looking at you going ‘that was stupid’. . . You have to at least fight. I did try, but I just didn’t have enough today, and that’s really frustrating.”

Felix was the class act on the day, the 29-year-old from Portugal claiming her first European title in 31.44.75, with her strength over those last eight laps hugely impressive.

She has some history with Britton, too, and Felix sneaked the bronze medal ahead of her at the 2010 European Cross Country, leaving Britton in fourth before Britton struck back with gold last December, Felix this time finishing runner-up behind her.

Indeed by finishing fourth at that European Cross Country in 2010 Britton already knows exactly how lonely a place it can be.

And although she did bounce back to win gold in 2011, there’s the added disappointment that, at age 27, her form coming to Helsinki had unquestionably made the Wicklow runner a medal contender. And even on the now two-year European cycle, these chances don’t come around very often.

“That’s why I went to the front,” she added, “because it was slow. The slower the race the better chance everyone else has. If we’d run around at that pace I would have finished a lot further back than fourth. So I had to try it, but it just wasn’t enough.

“I was a little surprised when Felix made the break, more in that she put such a gap on us straight away. But in some way everyone else settled for second, or third, too quickly. That was why I chased again, thinking there was still enough time to get her back. I don’t know. At that stage maybe I should have just sat back with them instead of pushing it on again.”

Britton is her own worst critic, and while refusing to make any excuses, it was only her second ever 10,000m on the track. “And I have my third one, in just a month’s time,” she added, referring to that date in London next month.

“So I have to move on from this. It’s all I can do. It was a great chance to medal, but more importantly another good chance of a 10,000m before the Olympics. It wouldn’t have been good to run only one 10,000m before the Olympics.”

It will be a lot more difficult for Britton to shake off any other runners in London, but perhaps the warning signs of this result were clear when with eight laps to go, just before Felix made her break, Britton still had seven others on her heels.

Try as she did she just couldn’t shake then off, the smallest, lightest women in the field – at 5ft 2in and 7st 1lb – trying her hardest to prove the strongest, fastest.

For the last of the Irish in action on Saturday night, if it wasn’t bad luck, they wouldn’t have had any luck at all.

Paul Hession did describe his eighth-place finish in the 200m final as “good prep” for London, and yet, running in lane one, his 21.27 seconds was some distance off his season best. But yet again disqualification turned out to be the order of the night for both the Irish men’s and women’s 4x400m relay – the women for stepping outside the exchange zone in the final changeover, and the men for two lane infringements.

Mark Kenneally finished 15th in the 10,000m final, his 29.10.55 still good groundwork for his Olympic marathon in a few weeks time. David Rooney finished 21st in a season’s best of 29:57.82, while Stephanie Reilly struggled to repeat her qualifying performance in the 3,000m steeplechase final, finishing in 12th, running 9.53.90.

For the three Irish 1,500m entrants qualifying for the final proved a step too far. Paul Robinson finished ninth in his semi-final, the 21-year-old clocking 3.47.26, while Ciara Mageean, just 20, and Orla Drumm both finished 12th in their semi-finals.