FIONNUALA BRITTON will line up as one of the medal favourites alongside Turkey’s Binniz Uslu and Portugal’s Ana Dulce Félix for the European cross-country championships in Velenje, Slovenia tomorrow.

The nine-year-old Dutch boy who miraculously survived a plane crash in Libya returned to the Netherlands to rebuild his young life without his parents and brother.

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

Blackrock International Land plc is pleased to announce that it has acquired a portfolio of six office buildings in The Netherlands for €46.5m.

MARY CULLEN is ready to challenge for a medal in the senior women’s race at the SPAR European cross-country championships at San Giorgio su Legnana, near Milan, tomorrow but would be happy with a place in the top five or six.

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.

AZ Alkmaar and Ajax both posted convincing wins today to stay in touch with Dutch League leaders PSV Eindhoven.

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.

SEAMUS POWER bids to win the National senior inter-counties cross-country title for a sensational 10th time at St Augustine’s College, Dungarvan, on Sunday.

UEFA have confirmed that this week’s two UEFA Cup second qualifying round first-leg games involving Israeli clubs have been rearranged for neutral venues.

Six-times European Cross-Country Champion Sergei Lebid has been confirmed for the Great Ireland Run in the Phoenix Park in April.

American Dathan Ritzenhein will defend his Belfast International Cross Country title in the new year.

RAY TREACY, Director of Track and Field at Providence College, was thrilled with the performance of protégé Mary Cullen at the European cross-country championships in Tilburg.

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.

MEDAL hope Alistair Cragg has been forced to withdraw from the Irish team for Sunday’s European cross-country championships in Tilburg.

Colin Costello has withdrawn from the Irish junior men's team competing in this Sunday's European Cross-Country Championships in the Dutch city of Tilburg.

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

Jolene Byrne has taken her first Women's title at today's National Inter-Counties Cross Country Championships.

Alistair Cragg’s bid for a medal at next month's European Cross-Country Championships looks well on track after a strong finish in his first ever road race in Connecticut today.

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.

Irish logistics company Walsh Western International has invested €2.5m in a new premises in Coventry in England to cater for a 40% business volume growth in the first two quarters of 2004.

PSV Eindhoven continue to blaze a trail in the Eredivisie after a 3-0 defeat of Groningen.

Irish logistics company Walsh Western International (WWI) have opened a new €15m plant in Tilburg, Holland, to cater for a major expansion of business in Europe.

RUUD van Nistelrooy claims it is impossible to compare him with Barclaycard Premiership rival Thierry Henry because they are such different players.

French strikers Sylvain Wiltord and Jeremie Aliadiere are back in business as Arsenal gather up their full firepower again for the final blast that could land them the Treble.

A group of retired nuns in Holland are opening their own internet cafe.