JOE SWEENEY goes into tomorrow’s Woodies DIY national inter-county cross-country championships overwhelming favourite to retain the title he won in Derry last year.

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.

LINDA BYRNE will add to an already exciting women’s field in the National Lottery Dublin Marathon this morning with the national championships incorporated in the event.

HIS sensational victory in last Saturday’s South Regional Cross-Country Championships in Hoover, Alabama will send Corkman Ciarán Ó Lionáird into Monday’s NCAAs among the medal favourites.

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.

OVER 3,000 runners will go to the starting line for tomorrow’s “Ballycotton 10”, Ireland’s most enduring and successful road race.

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.

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.

KIERAN DONAGHY had his first full training session with defending champions Abrakebabra Tigers in Tralee on Tuesday but coach Mark Bernsen does not expect him to play a part in their opening Nivea for Men Superleague game at home to UCD Marian on Saturday night.

“DON’T write Derval O’Rourke off,” was the clear message from world renowned sports injury therapist, Gerard Hartmann, as the former world indoor hurdles champion packed her bags for the Olympic Games in Beijing.

OLIVE LOUGHNANE can’t wait to toe the line at the 23rd IAAF World Race Walking Cup in Cheboksary, Russia, on Sunday for several reasons but mainly her recent good form.

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.

IRISH collegiate athletes in the United States have some tough acts to follow as the latest round of conference indoor track championships get underway this weekend.

A SUSPECTED case of food poisoning cost Ireland dearly at the SPAR European cross-country championships at San Giorgio su Legnano, Italy, yesterday.

MARTIN FAGAN defied unfavourable conditions to take fifth place at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in Indiana.

VINNY MULVEY of Raheny Shamrocks raced to a comprehensive winning debut in the Ballycotton 10 yesterday as Ireland’s most popular road race entered a new dimension - with a record field of more than 3,000.

VINNY MULVEY (Raheny Shamrock) made the 100-metre trip from his apartment to claim the National inter-club cross-country championship title in spectacular fashion at Santry Demesne on Saturday from young Mark Christie (Mullingar Harriers) and his flatmate, Killian Lonergan.

BUPA Cork City Sports received another off-season accolade this week when last summer's edition was ranked sixth on the evaluation list of outdoor meetings for 2005, with the points total reaching a stunning 79,994 - only slightly behind the total for the second-placed meeting.

STUDENT distance runner Mary Cullen continued her brilliant start to the outdoor track season at the weekend with a 5,000m victory at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia.

IRELAND’S Alistair Cragg continued his indoor season in flawless fashion with a double victory at the 2004 Southeastern Conference Championships in Lexington, Kentucky at the weekend.

MARTIN McCARTHY faces his moment of destiny on Sunday when he lines up for his debut marathon in Berlin.

MARTIN McCARTHY (Leevale) put years of frustration behind him in a devastating last lap that earned him his first national senior cross-country championship title at historic and picturesque Avondale where Anne Keenan-Buckley (North Laois) retained her women’s title in style.

JEFF SCOTT, who is married to Carrignavar athlete Michelle Murphy, is a regular Yuletide visitor to Cork and yesterday he highlighted his visit with an all-the-way victory in the Belgooly Festive Four Mile Road Race while another visitor, Canadian international Sarah Dupre, married to Leevale athlete, David Healy, reclaimed the women’s title.

ALASTAIR CRAGG, who has recently declared for Ireland and made himself available for selection for next month's European cross-country championships, finished second in yesterday's American national collegiate cross-country championships at Indiana State University.