DERVAL O’ROURKE is out of next weekend’s World Indoor Championships in Doha, Qatar with a hamstring injury.

MARK KENNEALLY had the honour of leading the Irish challenge home when he finished eighth in the senior men’s race at the SPAR European Cross-Country Championships at Santry Demesne, as the other more established members of the team flopped.

Ireland's Mark Kenneally put in the performance of his life to take eighth in the men’s senior race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Santry Park, Dublin.

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 wants to reproduce the form he showed when winning the national inter-counties cross-country title in Kilbeggan three weeks ago when he lines up for the SPAR European championships at Santry.

WITH individual and team medals within reach, Ireland’s cross-country team manager, Anne Keenan-Buckley, made no effort to hide her excitement when she introduced some of her athletes at Santry yesterday ahead of Sunday’s SPAR European cross-country championships.

ALISTAIR CRAGG will get his place on the Irish senior men’s team for the SPAR European cross-country championships if he proves his fitness in tomorrow’s 5k road race in San Jose.

THE Irish teams for the next month’s Spar European Cross-Country Championships in Dublin are due to be announced today. But team manager, Anne Keenan-Buckley confirmed yesterday the senior men’s team will not be finalised until after Thursday.

MARY CULLEN underscored her medal potential, while Andrew Led with signalled his intentions for next month’s SPAR European Cross-Country Championships with sweeping victories in the Woodies DIY National Inter-Counties cross-country championships held over Kilbeggan Racecourse yesterday.

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.

MARY CULLEN managed to win back some pride for Ireland with a fine fourth place in the senior women’s race at the SPAR European Cross-Country Championships in Brussels yesterday as Martin Fagan could only watch from his knees as his medal hopes faded after a crashing fall in the senior men’s race.

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.

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.

THE African dominance of global running was reinforced to stranglehold proportions at the world cross-country championships in Edinburgh yesterday where Ethiopians raced to all four individual gold medals and were deprived of gold in just two of the team races by their Kenyan neighbours who won both the senior and junior men’s contests.

The Irish team are in a positive mood despite two withdrawals ahead of this weekend's World Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh.

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.

SERGEY LEBID claimed his seventh title but Spaniard, Marta Dominguez, deprived the Ukraine of a double by stripping Tetyana Holovchenko of the senior women’s crown as Ireland claimed plenty of top 10 placings but no medals at the European cross-country championships in Toro, Spain, yesterday.

Ireland’s athletes have picked up two more top ten places at the European Cross-Country Championships in the Spanish town of Toro.

GARETH TURNBULL, Mary Cullen and Maria McCambridge will not contest Sunday’s European cross-country championships in Toro, Spain.

MARTIN FAGAN and Mary Cullen are named in the Irish senior teams for the European cross-country championships in Toro, near Madrid, on Sunday week.

Athletics Ireland today announced a 36-strong team for the European Cross Country Championships which take place on December 9 in Toro, Spain.

SUZANNE HUET (Dundrum/South Dublin) achieved her qualifying standard for the European junior championships when she won the 5,000m in 16:52.67 at yesterday’s national junior and under-23 championships in Tullamore.

MARK CHRISTIE who was the victim of a harsh disqualification in the final of the 5,000m at the European under-23 championships in Debrecen on Thursday night was reinstated in the early hours of yesterday morning and the records now show that the Mullingar man finished sixth in 13 mins 58.83 secs.

Athletics Ireland have announced their team for the upcoming European Under-23 Championships in Hungary.

ATHLETICS IRELAND could host the 2009 European cross-country championships.

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

Fionnuala Britton took silver today for Ireland in the Under 23 event at the Spar European Cross Country Championships in Legnano, Italy.

MARK CHRISTIE, winner of the national senior inter-counties title on Sunday in Dungarvan, has opted to compete in the Under-23 race at the European cross-country championships in Italy on Sunday week and Seamus Power, nine-time inter-counties champion, could be the man to replace him on the senior team.

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

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.

THE cross-country season may be just getting into full swing but Mark Christie, who led Ireland’s junior team to the silver medals at the European cross-country championships on Sunday, is already thinking of summer and the track season.

Ireland's Junior men's cross country team have claimed silver at the European Cross-Country Championships at Heringsdorf in Germany today.

MARIE DAVENPORT will provide Irish interest in Sunday’s New York City Marathon when she makes her debut over the distance alongside world record holder Paula Radcliffe, and Sonia O’Sullivan’s Australian training partner, Benita Johnson.

RACHEL AKERS (Scariff CC), who won both the senior girls discus and hammer at the Kit Kat Irish schools championships in Tullamore last year, begins to defend her titles at CIT in Bishopstown tomorrow at the Kit Kat Munster schools championships, starting at 9.30am.

KENENISA BEKELE maintained his stranglehold on cross-country running with another spectacular double at the world cross-country championships in Brussels.

FAVOURITE Andrew Ledwith (North Monastery) will have to reproduce the form he displayed at the national inter-club championships to lift the senior boys’ title at the Kit Kat Irish Schools Cross-Country in Antrim on Saturday.

AFTER wins in Belfast and Cardiff over the past two weekends, Cork’s Jamie McCarthy will be oozing confidence when he travels to Lisbon for Sunday’s junior international cross-country race.

WITH June 30 the cut off point for Olympic qualification, most athletes have their programmes in place for Athens but the High Performance Director, Elaine Fitzgerald, admitted that time is not on their side.

SÉAMUS POWER took the national Inter-counties Cross-Country Championships to a new level in Belvedere, Mullingar, yesterday, when he once again battled his way through the pain barrier to win the title for an amazing ninth successive time.