Griggs chases Irish title after Parkrun heroics

After his Parkrun 'world best' in Belfast which generated plenty of headlines last weekend, Nick Griggs believes he can win his first Irish senior title when he competes at this weekend's national cross country championships in county Fermanagh.

As always, the Irish tests on the Castle Irvine course - which Griggs thinks he will know well from his school days - will be the national selection race for the European Cross Country Championships in Antalya on 8 December.

"My district schools championships were in Irvinestown a few times," recalled the county Tyrone athlete, who turns 20 next month.

"I think I came second in second year and then won it in third year and fourth year. Hopefully it’s the same course so I know it well. I know the area well. It’s almost home advantage for me.

"I’m not from Fermanagh but they can claim me as one of their own!"

Griggs' Parkrun heroics, which followed a second place behind Kenya's Vincent Mutai at the Bobby Rea International Cross Country event in Belfast last month, suggests that his return to education at Ulster University in September, studying sports science, is doing him no harm.

"I quite like being busy as well," reflected the Ireland runner, who burst on to the athletics scene in the summer of 2021 by winning the European Under-20 3,000m track title as a 16-year-old.

"Sometimes last year when I was just doing running, I would get to bed at night and as much as I was physically tired, I might not sleep really because I wasn’t mentally stimulated at all."

'Griggs collapsed in Kilkenny mud'

The recent dry spell means there should hopefully be no repeat of the quagmire-like conditions of last year's nationals in county Kilkenny when Griggs collapsed in the muck well into the final lap of the junior race, was unable to get up and, eventually, had to be helped off the course to get medical treatment.

Despite that mishap, Griggs regrouped to finish third in the under-20 race at the Europeans in Brussels in three weeks later.

It was his second individual European Cross Country medal following his silver in 2022 after being dramatically pipped for gold by Great Britain's Will Barnicoat following his stumble with 50 metres remaining.

"It's my first year as a senior and I’ll be aiming for the under-23s at the Euro Cross," added a confident Griggs.

"I don’t see why I couldn’t go out and win the senior race if everything goes to plan. That will be the aim. Just see what happens and make the team for the Euro Cross which is the main focus of the winter season. I’ve won a silver and bronze so I would love to get that first Euro Cross title."

Griggs is to face stiff opposition in Fermanagh with Hiko Tonosa among the entries after setting a new Irish marathon record in Dublin last month.

The field also includes Efrem Gidey after his national half marathon record of 60:51 in Copenhagen, as well as Kieran Kilrehill and defending champion Cormac Dalton.

After winning the Irish women's marathon title in Dublin, Strabane-based Letterkenny athlete Ann Marie McGlynn is expected to be among the women's hopefuls hoping to deny back-to-back titles for Bandon's Fiona Everard.

While Griggs' looming 20th birthday on 18 December means he is now a senior athlete, he can look forward to having three cracks at the European Under-23 Cross Country title as he aims to finally capture individual gold.

"I’m not quite Jakob Ingebrigtsen skipping the under-23s and going straight into the senior," he laughed.

"It will still be a strong event with a lot of strong runners in that age group who are very fast over 3,000m and 5,000m."

But after a stellar summer of performances despite missing out on an Olympic place, Griggs is in that very same category.

The Newmills teenager regrouped from his Paris absence to produce huge personal bests over 3,000m (7:35.59) and 5,000m (13:13.07) which moved him to fourth and sixth on the Irish all-time lists for the distances which in both cases, put him ahead of such luminaries as Eamonn Coghlan and John Treacy.

After narrowly missing out on an Olympic 1500m place as national record-holder Andrew Coscoran was joined in Paris by Luke McCann and Cathal Doyle, Griggs' subsequent performances suggested that his future championship track endeavours will be over the longer distances.

"You can’t race too many 5,000s because if you get a bad relationship with the 5K you never go back but I think definitely at championship level in the future, I’ll probably be best over 5,000 - although I still think I'm a 1500/5000 guy.

"The 5,000 is definitely a harder race to run mentally. I haven’t run that many. I think I’ve run four on the track and one was a DNF. It's probably easier to lose your head in the 5,000m when it's not going your way but I think I'm mentally quite a strong runner so it should suit me quite well."

Griggs wants to challenge world's best

Griggs' huge 5,000m personal best at the Morton Games on 12 July - when he cut a massive 23 seconds off his previous time - earned him a 3,000m berth at the London Diamond League meeting eight days later where his smashed his PB by five seconds.

After running a 1500m best of 3:35.04 when taking victory at the British Milers Club meeting in Tooting a week before the Olympics, Griggs' summer campaign was mothballed for a month by the Paris Games before he found himself toeing the line alongside Ingebrigtsen as the Norwegian obliterated Daniel Komen's 3,000m record at the Silesia Diamond League meeting.

"It was a real honour and privilege to be in those Diamond League races. I was just trying to take the experience in, not take it for granted."

However, Griggs believes he can realistically aspire to challenging the world's best distance runners as his career evolves.

"I don’t see why in a few years, I can’t be up there competing with the best in the world as long as you keep progressing and keep injury free and healthy.

"I have to focus on myself and not worry about anyone else. Focus on building the mileage in training and staying consistent over the next few years and hopefully come the next Olympics, it will leave me in a good position to not only make the Olympics over 5,000m but also hopefully do quite well and compete in it."