Sometimes it takes a little desperation to bring out the best in athletes, and that was how Mark Carroll ran in yesterday's European Championship 5,000 metres. After three years of bad experiences when he most wanted to perform, he emptied his heart and delivered perhaps his finest race since taking bronze four years ago.

With a sixth place finish Carroll ran himself into total exhaustion, and though a medal this time was a little beyond his reach, it was an inspired run. At the bell lap he was five metres down on the leading group of five, and yet somehow found more reserves to close down once again on the leaders.

Spain's Alberto Garcia kicked hard down the back stretch and Carroll just couldn't quite find another gear. Garcia didn't slow either and took gold in 13 minutes 38.18 seconds, ahead of Ismail Sghyr of France (13:39.81) and Sergiy Lebid of the Ukraine (13:40.00). Carroll kept chasing hard to the line for sixth, clocking 13:42.87, and there was no disputing his effort on this occasion. "It's been a tough year, and a very frustrating year," said the Corkman. "But I'm happy that I dug down out there, and got back in contention - and then feel that buzz again on the last lap.

"It's just I've missed too much time this year. That little bit is still missing, one or two stones from the foundation, and that's why they got away from me with four or five laps out."

Garcia, the fastest European this season, always had his name on this title. He was only 10th when Carroll took bronze in 1998, but since then has rarely needed to look back. For Carroll, who missed 14 weeks with injury earlier in the season, this was a time to look ahead.

"Considering the year I've had with injuries, I'm just glad that I've made a complete recovery now. It's also been four weeks since I've raced as well and maybe I could have done with one or two more tune-ups. But I have turned the corner, because there's no way I could have run like that a month ago."

Carroll has now clearly set his next target as the New York Marathon in November, and the immediate plan is to start his build-up for his first test over 26.2 miles: "I'm going to give it a shot. I've always been curious about it and I've always wanted to do it, though right now it's as much a financial thing.

"But I've spoken to Paula Radcliffe about it, and she tells me to give it 10 good weeks. And as long as you don't lose your pace in the legs coming off the track season you should be fine. And I feel I have the strength back that I was missing."

There was another top-class Irish performance in the Olympic Stadium when the 4 x 400 relay team surpassed even their expectations and took fifth place - though at one point they were in the bronze medal position.

Rob Daly gave them a strong start, but it was record holder Paul McKee who inflicted the real damage on the opponents, taking the Irish into third place midway around his run. Shortly after that Germany's hopes died when Jens Dautzenberg fell, but Antoine Burke - a novice at the event - still ran hard on the third leg.

Then came 19-year-old David McCarthy, who held off the Greek man at the line for a sixth place time of 3:04.13 - just short of the 3:03.73 national record they set in Saturday's qualifying round. Poland were disqualified for barging, moving the Irish up to fifth, with the gold going to Britain (3:01.25).

For both Una English and Maria McCambridge, the 5,000 metres final on Saturday proved a much harsher experience. English was forced to stop and walk at one point over the closing laps and ended up 15th in 16:19.36, while McCambridge brought up the rear of the field in 17:00.15.