Alastair Cragg will lead the Irish team in the European Cross Country Championships scheduled for Tilburg in Holland on December 11.

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.

MULLINGAR clubmates Martin Fagan and Mark Christie could be reunited on the Irish cross-country team for the first time since 2001 when the squad for next month’s SPAR European Cross-Country Championships in Tilburg is announced.

MARK CHRISTIE is looking for a big performance at this year’s European cross-country championships in Tilburg, Holland, and has taken his preparations to a new level by travelling to Kenya to train at altitude.

CIARAN MCDONAGH justified coach Paul Doyle’s confidence when breaking his own national long jump record with a leap of 8.07m at the Resisprint International in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, on Sunday.

COLIN COSTELLO, the newly crowned European junior 1,500m champion, will chase Ray Flynn’s junior mile record in the Morton Mile at the Dublin International in Santry on Saturday.

COLIN COSTELLO and Danny Darcy claimed both the gold and silver medals for Ireland in the 1,500m at the European Junior Championships in Kaunas, Lithuania.

FOUR athletes made it through to their respective finals and two athletes - Linda Byrne in the steeplechase and Breffni Twohig in the 5,000m - set new national junior records on a great day for the Irish at the European Junior Track and Field Championships in Kaunas yesterday.

THERE was drama at the end of a sensational women’s 10,000m walk at the European junior championships in Kaunus yesterday when Yelena Ladanova of Russia, after finishing streets ahead of everyone, discovered she had been disqualified.

THE fall-out from the BUPA Cork City Sports was evident at the national junior and under-23 championships staged at the CIT Track in Bishopstown yesterday, where the sprinters grabbed much of the limelight.

WHILE Ireland’s seniors were succumbing to relegation at the European Cup in Leiria, an elite junior squad was doing extremely well in the prestigious junior international meeting in Mannheim, where two more athletes added their names to the team for the European junior championships.

PAUL McKEE, bronze medallist in the 400m at the world indoor championships in Birmingham, is on the way back and is predicting medals from the 4x400m relay at next year’s European championships in Gothenburg.

THE team for next month’s European Youth Olympic Festival in Lignano was finalised following the Kit Kat Irish Schools Track and Field Championships on Saturday when, despite some inclement weather, all the qualifiers produced some spectacular performances.

ATHLETES from all 32 counties will converge on the Tullamore Harriers Track for the Kit Kat Irish Schools championships today.

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.

GARY MURRAY (St. Malachy’s) claimed the national inter-clubs cross-country title at Santry on Saturday after an exciting duel with Mark Kenneally (Clonliffe Harriers) as the young guns finally wrestled control of the championship from the old guard.

Brendan Mooney

AILISH McSWEENEY will be the star attraction at the Munster indoor championships in Nenagh on Sunday as she attempts a double in the sprints.

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.

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.

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.

Ireland’s Mandy Crowe won her 200m heat at the World Junior Athletics Championships in Italy in a personal best time of 24.18s.

GARY RYAN’S Olympic qualification hopes were boosted yesterday when he was granted a place in the 200m in Saturday’s Meeting de Madrid 2004 - an IAAF Super Grand Prix - and then in Monday’s meet in Thessalonika.

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.

ANNE LOUGHNANE (St. Raphael’s, Loughrea), set a new national junior and senior schools record in the 3,000m walk at the Kit Kat Irish Schools Championships at Tullamore on Saturday when the girls set three records.