THE Ireland U-23 men's team have won the gold medal at the European Cross country championships this afternoon in Portugal. Raheny's Dave Rooney finished a magnificent 20th and was the fourth scorer on the victorious team.

He creates history by becoming the first every Raheny athlete to win a medal at this level. On scholarship in the US his cross country form has been outstanding all season culminating in a 50th place finish in the highly competitive NCAA Division 1 cross country championships in the US last month.

This was a magnificent team effort from the young Irish runners who had a comfortable 18 points and 19 points to spare over the silver and bronze medalists France and Spain respectively.

The achievement was all the more noteworthy was Ciaran O'Lionaird who would have been expected to spearhead the Irish challenge fell away and finished 76th and had to be treated in the oxygen tent afterwards.

However, the four Irish scorers packed wonderfully well with David McCarthy taking 11th place; Brendan O'Neill 13th, Michael Mulhare 17th and Dave Rooney finishing the 7Km race in 24:57 just 46 seconds behind the race winner in 20th spot.

It was the first ever team gold won by an Irish team in the European championships and the first medal of any kind that Ireland won since 2006. But it could have been as magnificent double: in the senior women's race Fionnula Britton was just pipped for third place.

Raheny's other representative in Albufeira Kevin Dooney finished a very credible 67th in the junior men's race and was the fifth finisher on the team that finished 5th. He will be eligible for this race for another two years.

So a great day all round for Ireland and a historic one for Raheny Shamrock and David Rooney.

*Closer to home in the inaugural Clonakilty Marathon on Saturday Rory Mooney finished 7th in 2:56.05 while Dave Brady completed is last marathon of 2010 finishing 74th in 3:54.34 and first O 60.