Christie running into form

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.

This is the first time the U23 runners will have an exclusive championship and Ireland contest the men’s and women’s races with strong contenders in Christie and Fionnuala Britton — who both attend DCU where they are scholarship students.

Christie competed three times as a junior in the Europeans, finished sixth in Edinburgh in 2003 and fifth two years ago in Germany.

He is a far better athlete now. He came off a low key campaign last season to finish runner-up to Vinny Mulvey in the national inter-club championships in Santry over 12,000m — a distance he was testing for the first time.

He was an impressive winner of the Gerry Farnan Memorial race last month and bounced back from a disappointing run in Ghent to beat the best runners in the country in the national inter-counties championships in Dungarvan last Sunday week.

“I have been looking forward to the Europeans since that race,” he admitted. “I have just been looking at the start list and nobody is dodging the race.

“I think the fact that I have run against the Russians before makes it more exciting for me because I think I am a better runner now. I am in better shape and I have been doing stronger stuff.

“In Dungarvan I held back in the early part of the race because I did not want to be fading towards the end of the 10k.

“I know it is going to be different in Italy. The pace will be different. You have to get up there and stay up there because it’s vital you cover the moves.

His first European championship cross-country was in Thun, Switzerland, when he was just 16 years of age. That day he sat deep in the pack as his Mullingar clubmate, Martin Fagan, and Waterford man, William Harty, shared the lead at various times.

“I was only a nipper then,” he recalled. “I remember I stayed at the back but ended up running a decent race. I finished 36th and was just a couple of seconds behind Martin.

Fagan flew in from Providence College yesterday ready to lead the Irish senior team in place of Christie and Alistair Cragg, who opted out of the team after finishing third in the Manchester Road Race in Connecticut last week.

Fagan arrived in along with another Providence College athlete, Mary Cullen, who finished 11th in the women’s race in Tilburg last year and underscored her form by finishing third in the Manchester Road Race yesterday week.

“I think Mary is going to surprise a few people,” said team manager, Anne Keenan-Buckley. “She is running quite well but it all depends on an athlete going to the line healthy.”

This will be the Laois woman’s first assignment since she was appointed senior team manager. She was three times national senior inter-club champion and won several national inter-county titles. She competed in the European cross-country championships five times and 13 times in world cross-country championships.