A text message at 9:33am yesterday morning from Derval O’Rourke signalled the end of a glittering career for one of Ireland’s most medalled athletes.

Mary Cullen is planning to skip the indoor season in a bid to win a medal at the European Track and Field Championships in Zurich this summer.

Mary Cullen stormed to a course record of 25 minutes and 37 seconds in windy conditions at the Axa Raheny five-mile race yesterday while there was also plenty of action in the Woodie’s DIY National Junior and U23 Championships in Athlone.

While Fionnuala Britton heads to tomorrow’s 20th European-Cross Country Championships in Belgrade in search of a hat-trick of titles with customary quiet steely resolve, her bigger ambition is to ultimately join the likes of Sonia O’Sullivan and Catherina McKiernan as Ireland’s greatest distance runners.

By Will Downing

Fionnuala Britton’s manager, Ian Chaney, insisted she will be focusing purely on her training, with media contact at a strict minimum, upon yesterday’s announcement of the Irish team for the European Cross Country Championships in Belgrade, Serbia on December 8.

The Irish women’s European Cross-Country winning team will be amongst the medal favourites in the 40th edition of the IAAF World Cross-Country Championships in snow-swept Bydgoszcz, Poland tomorrow.

Not even a missing spike key could deter Mary Cullen from dominating the Woodie’s DIY Inter Club Cross Country Championships in Charleville Estate in Tullamore yesterday.

Athletics Ireland High Performance Director Kevin Ankrom last night confirmed that a women’s team will compete at the World Cross Country Championships in Poland next month.

Fionnuala Britton, who takes on Olympic 5,000m champion Meseret Defar (Ethiopia) over 3,000m in Karlsruhe this weekend, was the headline athlete at the announcement of the new partnership between New Balance and Athletics Ireland last night.

The Woodie’s DIY AAI Games in the new Athlone IT indoor arena produced a long list of new personal bests and one new record.

The likelihood of an Irish women’s team competing at the World Cross-Country Championships in Poland next March remains a distant one, despite the insistence of Athletics Ireland officials they remain open to the idea.

It may be the Olympics but don’t expect the world.

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.

OLIVE LOUGHNANE expressed satisfaction with preparations for the World Championships in South Korea after covering the 3,000m walk in 12:52.85 — 15 seconds faster than last year.

Francisco ‘Paco’ Javier Fernandez, a multi-medallist at Olympic, World and European level, led home the field in the 3km walk at today's Cork City Sports meeting.

Ireland's athletes are 10th of the 12 competing nations after the opening day's events in the European Team Championships 1st League in Izmir, Turkey.

LAST year Robert Heffernan had to watch from the stands as his Irish international team-mate, Jamie Costin (West Waterford), claimed the title and the national 3,000m record at Cork City Sports so it is hardly surprising that the Togher man wants to return and reclaim the limelight at the CIT Track on July 2.

SOME of Ireland top young talents secured qualification for international events at the Woodie’s DIY AAI Games at windswept Santry yesterday.

MARTIN FAGAN is ready to take on all comers when he defends his title in tomorrow’s Spar Great Ireland Run.

DERVAL O’ROURKE will recover from her fourth place at the European Indoor Championships, according to her coach Sean Cahill.

Ireland's Mary Cullen was a notable absentee from today's 3000 metres heats at the European Indoor Championships in Paris.

SHE did not win a medal this time but Derval O’Rourke had another amazing adventure at the European championships in Paris yesterday when she reported back from injury to claim fourth place in the final of the women’s 60m hurdles.

MARIAN HEFFERNAN has been added to the Irish team for next week’s European indoor championships in Paris.

AILIS McSWEENEY (Leevale AC) stormed to a new personal best performance with a sensational 7.32 sec victory in the women’s 60m — just two hundredths of a second off the national record — at the Woodies DIY Irish Indoor championships at the Odyssey Arena yesterday.

Mary Cullen broke away from the field in the final 400 metres to win gold in the 1500 metres final at the Woodie's DIY Irish Indoor Championships in Belfast.

WITH qualifying standards due to be announced in April/May, the build-up to London 2012 has already begun for Irish athletes with the cream of the current crop already in training camps around the world.

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.

World race-walking silver medallist, Olive Loughnane was crowned The Irish Times/Irish Sports Council ‘Sportswoman of the Year 2009’ today for her performance at the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Berlin earlier this year.

PATSY McGONAGLE will lead the Irish track and field team into the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Ireland finished fourth in the women’s senior race at today’s SPAR European Cross Country Championships.

COACH Ray Treacy insists it will take a massive performance to deny home hope Mary Cullen the gold medal in tomorrow’s SPAR European cross-country championships at Santry Demesne.

WHEN the President of Athletics Ireland, Liam Hennessy, launched the bid to bring the SPAR European cross-country championships to Dublin in Italy in 2006, Mo Farah was a surprise winner of the senior men’s title.

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 is selected to run for Ireland in the SPAR European cross-country championships in Santry on December 13.

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.

Mary Cullen has finished first in the senior women’s race at the Woodie’s DIY Inter County Cross Country Championships at Kilbeggan this afternoon.

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.

OLIVE LOUGHNANE, silver medallist in the 20k walk at the world championships in Berlin, was named Ireland’s ‘Athlete of the Year’ at an awards ceremony in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Santry, on Saturday night.