Denise Toner produced a dominant display in the European Masters Athletic Championship, leading from start to finish in both the 3,000 metres and the 1,500 metres to capture double W40 gold.

Toner went into both races as one of the favourites for victory, and she immediately stamped her authority on the events as she stretched out an early advantage and never looked like being headed off.

“I had gone out with the intention of doing my own thing,” she revealed.

“I have gone out before and spent a bit of time trying to figure out what was the game plan of other people, but I knew in training I had been doing well, so I thought this time I am going to go with my own plan.

“For both the races I took it by the scruff of the neck and took it out myself and it worked out well.”

Her first race was the 3,000 metres and Denise clocked a sub 10 minute time on her way to victory.

“I had been training at 10 minutes for the 3k pace so I knew I could do that plus more if I needed to put the foot down,” she said.

“I went out at that pace with the intention of bringing it up in the middle of the race, and that is the plan I went with.

“I knew after the first five laps or so I had opened up a bit of a gap, and I felt strong in my own running.

“My coach was there, and he told me to ease back a bit over the last couple of laps because I knew I had the 1500 coming later in the week. I knew at that stage I had a big enough gap to do that. It was great.”

Denise decided to replicate her fast start in the 1,500 metres, and she was rewarded with another gold.

“I was a bit more apprehensive going into it,” she admitted.

“One of my main competitors was a fellow Irish girl, Annette Quaid, and she had taken gold in the 800 and 400 earlier in the week. She has great speed so I went into the race with the intention of trying to burn her off early on.

“I know that I have endurance and she would be more speed-orientated without always having the endurance there. By the time we came through at 1k, I had opened up a gap of seven or eight metres and I pushed on, and there was seven seconds in it in the end up. I had run 4.28 in Athlone a few weeks ago so I knew I was in good shape and I just went for it.”

The European Championship were initially scheduled for 2020 but Covid put an end to the event.

Extra time

Denise had been unable to make that event, but with extra time on her hands during the lockdown, she vowed to make the most of a second chance to compete at the prestigious meeting.

“The last two years have been very difficult for a lot of people because of Covid, but it also has allowed a lot of us who are working full-time and have kids, to get a bit of time to do some training,” she said.

“I was able to get out most days, even if it was up into the forest, so it allowed the opportunity to train like a full-time athlete which has really helped as well. It’s having had the opportunity to have that extra training and recovery.”

Having got herself into the best shape of her life, Denise is hoping to add World Championship gold to her European successes.

“I will go back to base training and then it will be the outdoor season,” she said.

“I am hoping to go to the World Masters in Finland in July, but it depends what way things work out with Russia and Ukraine.

“We don’t know how that will be affected, but hopefully it will go ahead as planned and that is my main objective now.”

Meanwhile, Irene Clements also returned from the European Championships with two medals.

The local runner secured silver in the Cross Country event before then competing in the 3000m where she once more produced a superb run to go on and grab a deserved second silver of the championships.