It isn't often that success in major international level is accepted without demur but Mark Carroll's composed run under some intense pressure was the exception in the final of the European 3,000 metres championship. Carroll, controlling the race even when back in fourth or fifth place, had predicted for much of the last week that if he avoided the traffic, he had the engine to become the first Irishman since Eamonn Coghlan in 1979 to leave these championships with a gold medal.

And he was as good as his word when he went into overdrive on the last lap to reduce Portugal's Rui Silva and the defending champion, John Mayock of Britain, to mere peripheral roles in a suitable climax to some absorbing drama.

The Irishman, never more authoritative, was timed at seven minutes 49.24 seconds, some five seconds outside Markus Ryffel's championship record but still good enough to give him almost half-a-second to spare over Silva with Mayock a couple of metres further back in seasonal best figures of seven minutes 49.97.

If the margins at the end were fairly tight, there were no excuses being offered by either the Portuguese or British camps, nor indeed by the Belgians who felt that Mohammed Mourhit, a Moroccan who has recently changed citizenship, had what it took to succeed.

As it transpired, Mourhit, the man singled out by Carroll as the biggest danger, never really counted when the race built to a critical stage. Earlier he had thrown a shape briefly when he surged into the lead, shortly after the second kilometre had been reached.

For a fleeting second, Carroll appeared to be in trouble as Mourhit caught him with an outstretched arm. The immediate effect was to drop him back into fifth place but if the Irishman felt inclined to panic it didn't show.

One by one he picked off the leaders until only Silva was in front at the bell. Carroll, his face wholly composed, knew instinctively that he was travelling the better of the two and right on cue he was up and away with 120 metres to go.

Behind him, Silva and Mayock were content to settle for the minor placings and in less than eight minutes some revisions had been made in some of the long-range forecasts for Sydney 2000.