ALISTAIR CRAGG has his sights set firmly on the European Indoor Championships in Birmingham on March 2/3/4, when he will defend his 3,000m title.

RAY TREACY, Director of Track and Field at Providence College, was thrilled with the performance of protégé Mary Cullen at the European cross-country championships in Tilburg.

EUROPEAN gold medallist Alistair Cragg is considering an audacious attempt at the 4km and 12km titles on successive days at the World Cross-Country Championships in Saint-Etienne/Saint-Galmier next weekend.

ALISTAIR CRAGG has conquered Europe and is ready to take on the world. The new European indoor 3,000m champion plans that assault in two weeks time when he renews rivalry with the double champion, Kenenisa Bekele, at the World cross-country championships in Saint-Etienne/Saint-Galmier.

Leevale athlete Derval O'Rourke failed to repeat her first-round heroics when bowing out of the 60-metre hurdles semi-finals at the European Championships in Madrid today.

Dejene Berhanu’s late decision to compete in the BUPA Great North Run paid dividends after his emphatic victory resulted in a new course record.

Australia’s top distance runner Craig Mottram insists he will be treating this weekend’s Great BUPA Ireland Run as aggressively as he did the recent World Cross-Country Championships.

Another city has thrown its hat into the ring for the 2016 Olympic Games.

SPORTS Minister John O’Donoghue is the only person who can save Ireland’s bid to hold the 2005 European Cross-country Championships in Cork, and last evening, Liam Hennessy, international secretary of the Athletics Association of Ireland, appealed to him to rescue the event.

UNA ENGLISH emerged as Ireland’s leading athlete at the World Cross-country Championships staged in sun-soaked Lausanne over the weekend when she finished 16th in the short course race.

PREDICTABLY, the Kenyan team of athletes returned home from the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham with a clutch of medals and in the process posed fresh problems for one of the least enthusiastic gardeners in Africa.

CORK is among the front-runners to host the European Cross-Country Championships in 2005 — the year the City will hold the status of European Capital of Culture.

THE enduring excellence of Sonia O'Sullivan is cause for celebration.

The long-running saga surrounding a replacement for Rosemary Ryan on the Irish women's team for this weekend's World Cross-Country Championships has come to an end.

The World Cross-Country Championships, forced to switch venue because of the foot and mouth crisis, are now being hampered by a rail strike.

Maureen Harrington has pulled out of the Irish team for next week's World Cross-Country Championships in Ostend in Belgium.

Brussels is set to fill the breach if Leopardstown cannot stage the World Cross-Country Championships later this month.

Concern is mounting as to whether Dublin will be able to stage the World Cross-Country Championships with the foot and mouth outbreak.

Sonia O'Sullivan is joining a campaign to encourage Irish people to eat their greens today.