And the fact that Spain present a lethal looking threepronged attack it may require some subtle tactics on the part of Alistair Cragg if he is to capture glory for Ireland and become the first Irishman to strike gold.

Mark Carroll has reason to remember the Spanish inquisition of eight years ago when Isaac Viciosa and Manual Pancorbo outmanoeuvered him to win gold and silver after the Corkman had made a brave attempt to blunt their finishing speed.

Now Cragg is clearly presented with a similar puzzle.

How does he make the necessary adjustment to his tactics so that he can leave the likes of Jesus Espana and Carlos Higuero less effective in the last couple of laps.

"Who is saying that I will leave it until the last few laps" said Cragg the other day when asked about breaking up this Spanish attack, not to mention the Moroccan born Frenchman, Khalid Zoubaa (who is coached by the great Said Aouita) and naturalised British runner, Mohammed Farah.

"We will work things out and I will be going in there with a plan" said Cragg. "I will be guided by my coach, John McDonnell, and he will make the right decision for me. He always does."

When Cragg talks about McDonnell you can appreciate the bond he has with his Co Mayo born mentor. "John is the brains behind my running and while he may not know the runners he knows their times and he will appreciate they are all championship runners. I will do exactly as he says. If he tells me to go at four kilometres I will do it. If he tells me to wait until the last 200 metres I will do that also.

"He knows the best way for me to race and he has great faith in my finishing kick. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I have run well without him around.

"I don't know what his final words to me will be but he knows I'm in good shape and ready and whatevere he does say I'm sure it will get my blood flowing. He is not a man of strong words. He just says the right things and I'm excited myself to see what his final words and instruction to me will be."

With faith as strong as that in his coach one can appreciate the importance of having McDonnell around him here, as he has been in Cragg's life for the past five years.

Cragg said that he has defeated these type of runners before but the European 5,000m final has always been a hard race to win and some great runners have been defeated in it.

The big question is what tactics will the Spanish coaches and mentors have for their three challengers, Espana, Pablo Villalobos and Higuero, who took the bronze medal in the 1,500m on Wednesday night.

"For a 1,500m runner to kick at the end of a 5,000 m is not easy and they are going to feel the pain like they have never felt before" says Cragg with a bold intent.

Cragg says that there is no comparison between his ability to run well in the 5,000 m compared to the 1,500 m, thus discounting a couple of less than convincing performances over the shorter distances recently.

"There is no comparison between the two. I ran those races to work out a few things and I got from them what I wanted."

At his best Cragg is a top class 5,000m runner as he proved when becoming the only European to make the Olympic final two years ago and ran that super 13:08.97 two months ago in New York.