Ireland is sending it's biggest ever team to the 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships this weekend but we have a long and successful history with the championships going all the way back to the first edition as the European Indoor games. Let's look at our medal winners.
1966 Dortmund
Noel Carroll - 800m - GOLD
Maeve Kyle - 400m - Bronze
Ireland only sent 2 athletes to the first ever European Indoor Games in 1966 and they both won medals.
1967 Prague
Noel Carroll - 800m - GOLD
Picture credit: Connolly Collection / SPORTSFILE
Two in a row for the man who created the Dublin marathon.
1968 Madrid
Noel Carroll - 800m - GOLD
That's the hat trick.
1969 Belgrade
Noel Carroll - 800m - Bronze
It took a world record run from East Germany's Dieter Fromm to inflict Carroll's first defeat at this level.
1970 Vienna
Frank Murphy - 1,500m - Silver
Murphy followed up his silver at the 1969 outdoor European Championships with the same indoors in 1970
1979 Vienna
Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile
Eamonn Coghlan - 1,500m - GOLD
We had to wait 9 years for our next medal and the "Chairman of the Boards" delivered gold. Despite his world record record setting performances indoors, it would be the only indoor medal of Coghlan's great career.
1980 Sindelfingen
Ray Flynn - 1,500m - Silver
Mary Purcell - 1,500m - Silver
Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
It's a mark of how strong an athlete Ray Flynn was that his Irish 1,500m (and mile) record still stands today from 1982. Purcell was an Olympian in 1972 and this medal was her crowning achievement.
1985 Piraeus/Athens
Marcus O'Sullivan - 1,500m - Silver
Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Corkman O'Sullivan would go on to win gold 3 times at the World Indoor Championships but his only medal at European level was silver in 1985.
2000 Ghent
Mark Carroll - 3,000m - GOLD
Photos by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
James Nolan - 1,500m - Silver
Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
It would be 15 years until Ireland's next Euro Indoors medal (winning 7 medals at World Indoor level in that timeframe!) but we came back with a bang in Belgium. A terrific silver by Nolan was topped by Carroll's magnificent gold.
2002 Vienna
Photo by Aoife Rice/Sportsfile
Karen Shinkins - 400m - Bronze
36 years after Maeve Kyle, Shinkins won Ireland's 2nd sprint medal over two laps of the Vienna track.
2005 Madrid
Photo; Pat Murphy / SPORTSFILE
David Gillick - 400m - GOLD
Alistair Cragg - 3,000m - GOLD
2005 saw Ireland win 2 gold medals for the first time. Gillick with the first sprint medal for men and South African born Cragg continuing our middle distance history.
2007 Birmingham
Photo: Tomas Greally / SPORTSFILE
David Gillick - 400m - GOLD
Gillick retained his title with a scintillating time that still stands as an Irish record. He was unlucky with injuries in his career but he joins Noel Carroll as the only Irish multiple gold medal winner at the European Indoor Championships.
2009 Turin
Photo: Paul Mohan / SPORTSFILE
Derval O'Rourke - 60m Hurdles - Bronze
Roisin McGettigan - 1,500 - Bronze
Mary Cullen - 3,000m - Bronze
The 2009 even saw 3 Irish athletes win medals for the first time. O'Rourke won the 2006 world indoors but this was her first medal at European Indoors. Cullen had broken Sonia O'Sullivan's 3,000m record earlier in the season. McGettigan had initially finished 4th but when winner Anna Alminova was banned in 2014, she was upgraded to third and received her medal.
2013 Gothenburg
Photo: Brendan Moran / SPORTSFILE
Derval O'Rourke - 60m Hurdles - Bronze
Ciarán Ó Lionáird - 1,500 - Bronze
Fionnuala Britton - 3,000m - Bronze
After no medals in 2011, Ireland returned with 3 more in 2013. O'Rourke was upgraded following Turkish athlete's Nevin Yanit's doping disqualification. Ó Lionáird won the only international medal of his injury blighted career. For Britton (later McCormack) she added to her European Cross Country gold medals.
2015 Prague
Photo: Pat Murphy / SPORTSFILE
Mark English - 800m - Silver
After a game of 46 years at 800m, Donegal's Mark English followed his 2014 European outdoor medal with his breakthrough indoors.
2019 Glasgow
Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
Mark English - 800m - Bronze
Ciara Mageean - 800m - Bronze
A pair of bronze medals for Ireland's 800m runners in Glasgow. Both athletes have now won medals indoors and outdoors at European level.
Let's hope we can add to this list of 25 this weekend in Poland.
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