Ireland’s double European Cross-Country Champion Fionnuala Britton will miss next month’s World Athletics Championships in Moscow after announcing she is to take an “extended break” from the sport.

The likelihood of an Irish women’s team competing at the World Cross-Country Championships in Poland next March remains a distant one, despite the insistence of Athletics Ireland officials they remain open to the idea.

BRIAN GREGAN took his career to anew level with asilver medal in the men’s 400m at the European U23 championships with a new personal best time of 46.12 secs in Ostrava on Saturday.

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.