DERVAL O’ROURKE continued her preparations for this month’s world indoor championships in Doha with a season’s best in Norway on Saturday.

DERVAL O’ROURKE is in a medal-winning frame of mind according to the Irish coach, Patsy McGonagle.

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 have come home in fifth place in the U-23 women’s race at today’s SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Santry Park.

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.

Paul Hession, the big draw on the second and final day of the Woodie's DIY Senior Track and Field Championships in Santry, was forced to withdraw from the 100 metres today due to illness.

ALAN O’BRIEN (Crusaders) was relatively unknown when he won the IMC 800m at Cork City Sports last year.

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.

IRISH Olympian Marie Davenport has written off her track season this summer due to a severe problem with allergies.

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, 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.

MARK CHRISTIE (Westmeath) claimed his first national senior title with victory at the inter-counties cross-country championships at St Augustine’s College, Dungarvan, yesterday.

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.

THE absence of the likes of reigning champion Gary Murray (injured) has thrown today’s national senior inter-club cross-country championships at Santry Demesne wide open. And it could be just the race for Vinny Mulvey.

SERGIY LEBID stole the show with a devastating last lap surge to claim his fifth successive title - and his sixth in all - at the SPAR European cross-country championships in Tilburg, overcoming the challenge of Spain’s Alberto Garcia, the European 5,000m champion who only returned from a two-year ban for a positive drugs test last March.

THE forced withdrawal of Alistair Cragg has been a huge blow to Ireland’s medal hopes at the European cross-country championships in Tilburg, but the men’s team, led by national champion Gary Murray, are ready to get on with the job they came here to do.

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.

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.

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.

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