Alistair Cragg has been confirmed by Athletics Ireland as part of the Irish team for the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Santry Park next month.

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.

Many of Ireland’s top cross country runners will be in action on Sunday at the Woodie’s DIY Inter County Cross Country Championships looking to secure their place on the Irish team for the European Cross Country Championships.

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

Fionnuala Britton lines out for the Irish team in today's World Cross-Country championships in Edinburgh hoping to improve on her sterling 14th place finish at last year's event.

Irish U-23 athlete Linda Byrne is making her first senior athletics outing for her country this weekend, and they don't come much bigger than this – the World Cross-Country Championships.

THE terrain and climate might be more suitable than was the case when the European titles were up for grabs in Spain last December, but Ireland’s 21-strong team will still be up against it when the world championships take place in Edinburgh tomorrow.

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.

FIONNUALA BRITTON will be Ireland’s only representative at the world cross-country championships in Mombasa at the end of the month.

FIONNUALA BRITTON will be Ireland’s only representative at the world cross-country championships in Mombasa at the end of the month.

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.

MARK CHRISTIE is not among the medal favourites for the U23 men’s race at the SPAR European cross-country championships in San Giorgio su Legnano, but that won’t bother the 21 year-old Mullingar man on Sunday.

SEAMUS POWER has conceded defeat in his battle to be fit for Sunday’s European cross-country championships near Milan and will be replaced by national inter-clubs champion Vinnie Mulvey on the Irish senior squad.

MARK CHRISTIE, one of the country’s most exciting athletes, is all set to bring down the curtain on his junior career with a stylish performance at the European Cross-country Championships in Heringsdorf, Germany, on Sunday.

WITH Rosemary Ryan, Catherina McKiernan and Seamus Power all missing the event, Peter Matthews is the main Southern challenger at the Reebok international cross-country race at Stormont Castle on Saturday.

EVERY cloud has a silver lining and that’s how it turned out for the Irish women’s team at the European cross-country championships in Edinburgh yesterday when the dark rain cloud dipped behind the Haggis Knowe and they swept past a shocked French team to claim their silver team medals.

SHE can’t think of a better way to end the year than a medal from European cross-country championships.

SEAMUS POWER bids for a sensational ninth consecutive national inter-counties cross-country title on Sunday, and his training partner and arch rival, Peter Matthews, admits it will take a super human performance to dethrone the Clareman.

FIVE years ago Catherina McKiernan came within two minutes of breaking Tegla Laroupe’s women’s marathon world record.

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.

FIACHRA LOMBARD has pulled out of Sunday’s Rás na hÉireann, which incorporates the national short course championship.

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.

SONIA O'SULLIVAN'S participation in the world cross-country championships in Lausanne at the end of March could be in jeopardy after she withdrew from a weekend engagement in Japan.

JERRY KIERNAN is hopeful he will have both Catherina McKiernan and Seamus Power available when the teams for the world cross-country championships in Lausanne at the end of March are selected.

WITH Catherina McKiernan set to compete in the Reebok Challenge in Belfast on Saturday week the prospects of having herself and Sonia O'Sullivan lining up together for the world cross-country championships in Lausanne next March are getting more exciting.

SÉAMUS POWER has dominated the national inter-counties cross-country chapionships for the past seven years, and there is nothing to indicate that he will not win a record eighth title at Donoughmore, Co Cork, tomorrow.

VALERIE VAUGHAN (Blarney/Inniscarra) got the victory she had always wanted when she finished clear of defending champion Anne Keenan-Buckley (North Laois), to win the Evening Echo Cork Women’s Mini-Marathon yesterday, when she defied the tight corners and series of energy-sapping climbs that punctuated the new course to cover the five miles in 27 minutes 45 seconds, and that was just nine seconds clear of the runner-up.

VALERIE VAUGHAN (Blarney/Inniscarra) is hoping to fulfil a lifetime ambition when she lines up for the Evening Echo Cork Ladies Mini Marathon on Sunday.

THE world of women's middle distance running may be buzzing in advance of the showdown between defending champion Sonia O'Sullivan and Paula Radcliffe in tonight's 10,000m final in Munich, but the newly crowned Commonwealth Games champion played it down yesterday.

SONIA O'SULLIVAN is noted for surprises and she produced another big one for fans yesterday in the form of an unique 800m/5,000m double at the national track and field championships at Morton Stadium.