Three top-10 finishes for Ireland once upon a time may have been a cause for celebration coming out of a European Cross-Country Championships.

While Fionnuala Britton heads to tomorrow’s 20th European-Cross Country Championships in Belgrade in search of a hat-trick of titles with customary quiet steely resolve, her bigger ambition is to ultimately join the likes of Sonia O’Sullivan and Catherina McKiernan as Ireland’s greatest distance runners.

By Will Downing

The Irish women’s European Cross-Country winning team will be amongst the medal favourites in the 40th edition of the IAAF World Cross-Country Championships in snow-swept Bydgoszcz, Poland tomorrow.

Before the Off the Ball team went off the air, Jerry Kiernan went off the wall on the show.

Fionnuala Britton was already looking to the future after yesterday’s sensational performance at the European Cross-Country Championships in snowy Budapest.

Fionnuala Britton and Joe Sweeney, fresh from impressive performances over the weekend, form a strong backbone to the Irish team for the European Cross-Country Championships to be held near Budapest on Sunday week.

FIONNUALA BRITTON produced the performance of her life to win the BUPA Great Edinburgh cross-country race on Saturday, leaving the best runners from Europe and the US gasping behind her over the hilly and muddy Holyrood Park course.

EUROPE’S top cross-country runner, Fionnuala Britton will be one of the favourites for the gold medal when she leads the Irish women’s team into next month’s European cross-country championships in Slovenia.

JOE SWEENEY may have other things on his mind but his coach, Jerry Kiernan, won’t be surprised if he adds his name to the list of qualifiers for next year’s Olympics.

WORLD youth racewalking champion Kate Veale (West Waterford), finished third in the junior women’s race at the prestigious McCain UK Cross Challenge in Bristol over the weekend.

WORLD SILVER medallist, Olive Loughnane, faces her first big assignment of the year when she lines up for the European Cup Race Walking in Olhão on the Algarve on Saturday.

FIONNUALA BRITTON will win the European cross-country championships this year and, if not, she will certainly win them next year, according to her new coach, Chris Jones.

MARIAN HEFFERNAN has been added to the Irish team for next week’s European indoor championships in Paris.

SHANE QUINN (De La Salle, Waterford) was an impressive winner of the senior boys’ title at the AVIVA Munster Schools cross-country championships at the CIT Campus, Bishopstown, yesterday.

DERVAL O’ROURKE has withdrawn from next weekend’s Woodies DIY All-Ireland indoor championships at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast but her coach, Sean Cahill, insists there is no need for concern.

MICHAEL MULHARE, North Laois AC, yesterday added the men’s senior title at the 42nd Rás na hEireann Cross-Country International to animpressive list of victories notched up over the past several weeks.

DERVAL O’ROURKE moved a step closer to her target — the European championships in Paris in a month’s time — when she finished third in the 60m hurdles in 8.03 secs at last night’s international indoor meeting in Lievin.

CIARA MAGEEAN reaches a new level tonight in the New Balance Games at the Armory Track and Field Centre in New York.

JOE SWEENEY (DSD) finished 10th and helped Europe to victory in the IAAF Cross-Country Team Challenge at the at the snow clad Hollyrood Park in Edinburgh on Saturday.

CIARA MAGEEAN has secured the most lucrative sponsorship deal in the history of Irish junior athletics after signing a six-figure deal with sportswear giants New Balance.

THE star of Ireland’s U23 team which claimed gold at the European cross-country championships in Albufeira yesterday predicts this title will be the catalyst for senior glory.

WHEN David McCarthy finished third in the Manchester Road Race on Thanksgiving Day, medal hopes for Ireland’s U23 men’s team at Sunday’s European cross-country championships in Albufeira shot through the roof.

SEAMUS POWER has been named as a reserve on the senior men’s team for the European cross-country championships but said last evening that he won’t be going.

WITH Ciarán Ó Lionáird committed to competing and David McCarthy set to return from Providence, the task of putting together a medal winning under-23 team for the European cross-country championships should be completed on Sunday at the Woodies DIY national inter-county cross-country championships at Gransha Park, Derry.

CIARÁN O LIONÁIRD feels that the Irish under-23s are ready to compete for the team gold medals at next month’s European Cross-Country Championships in Albufeira.

CIARÁN Ó LIONÁIRD (Leevale AC) finished a close-up fourth in the tough ACC Conference meet at Franklin Park, Boston, where less than four seconds separated the top four finishers.

PATRICK MAHER (Davis College, Mallow) will compete in both the 400m and 400m Hurdles at the Munster schools championships in a week’s time after a one lap cruise at the second session of the South Munsters at the CIT Track in Bishopstown yesterday.

COACH Ray Treacy insists it will take a massive performance to deny home hope Mary Cullen the gold medal in tomorrow’s SPAR European cross-country championships at Santry Demesne.

ALISTAIR CRAGG has made no secret of the fact that he fancies his chances in tomorrow’s SPAR European cross-country championships at Santry Demesne and his arrival yesterday added to the air of excitement that surrounds the Irish camp, situated just a stone’s throw from what is a resplendent course.

MARK HANRAHAN (Leevale) will be targeting a place on the Irish team for the SPAR European cross-country championships when he lines up in defence of his Cork senior crown at Clonakilty Showgrounds on Sunday.

THE expression on his face as he powered his way up the home straight said it all as Drogheda athlete, Keith Kelly, buried 10 years of frustration at Santry Park yesterday by claiming the National senior cross-country title for the first time at the age of 31.

SPECIAL OLYMPICS have been hit hardest with e343,919 cut from their 2009 funding but with total funding amounting to e11.47m, budgetary cuts fell well short of the feared 8% when Government grants to sports’ governing bodies were announced by the Irish Sports Council (ISC) yesterday.

Mary Cullen was the story of the Irish today at the European Cross Country Championships in Brussels as she took an excellent fourth position in the senior women’s race.

MARTIN FAGAN will go to the line among the favourites for tomorrow’s senior men’s race at the European cross-country championships in Brussels but the Mullingar Harrier knows it will be difficult to improve on last year’s seventh placing in Toro.

MARK CARROLL, who held national records from 3,000m to 10,000m and represented Ireland on the track at every level up to and including two Olympic Games, will make a belated European cross-country championship debut in Brussels next month.

ANDREW LEDWITH turned in the finest performance of his career to date when he finished third in the NCAA championships at Indiana State University yesterday.

IRELAND’S men’s under-23 team are capable of winning medals at this year’s European Cross-Country Championships, according to Mark Carroll.

MARY COGHLAN is to replace Brendan Hackett as CEO of Athletics Ireland. The chair of the Finance and Risk Committee begins her new role on May 19.

ANDREW LEDWITH (Fr. Murphy’s) has been named on the Irish senior men’s team for the world cross-country championships at the end of the month in what could prove a very wise decision by the selectors.

MARTIN FAGAN, Ireland’s newest Olympic qualifier, has obtained his US visa and is ready to return to the States on Monday.

DERVAL O’ROURKE’S defence of her world indoor 60m hurdles title was in jeopardy last night after she withdrew from next weekend’s Woodies DIY Irish indoor athletic championships at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast with a foot injury.

MARTIN FAGAN was rewarded for Friday’s performance in Dubai where he achieved the qualifying standard for the Olympic marathon when the Olympic Council of Ireland launched its Beijing Bursary programme — awarding a grant of €10,000 to the 24-year-old Mullingar Harrier.