Healy enjoys a gold rush

SARAH SAYS SUCCESS "BUILT ON HAVING FUN

- MICHAEL SCULLY

LEARNING to have fun again on the big stage was the key to Sarah Healy joining Ireland's gold medal club.

Healy delivered on the promise of her stellar underage career by striking gold in Sunday's European indoors 3000m final.

She out-sprinted British race favourite Melissa Courtney-Bryant to claim her first senior medal - and Ireland's first victory in the championships since 2007.

Her triumph took centre stage during a magical 35 minutes in Apeldoorn as Mark English won 800m bronze and Kate O'Connor the Pentathlon bronze.

The congratulatory messages that stood out afterwards came from Irish team colleagues and she was chuffed that Conor Niland, whose memoir 'The Racquet' won the William Hill Sports Book Of the Year in November, started following her on Instagram.

"I loved his book, my dad gave it to me over Christmas, it was just so interesting and really good," said Healy. "When he followed me on Instagram I thought that was cool."