Britton boldly goes fourth

Fionnuala Britton had to settle for fourth at the Antrim IAAF International Cross Country meeting in Greenmount on Saturday, succumbing in the closing stages having led on the last lap of the 5.6km course.

Britton was denied a hat-trick of victories at the meeting by three top class Ethiopians who now compete for different countries.

Bahrain’s Mimi Belete finished one second ahead of her in-form compatriot Maryam Jamal, the 2007 and 2009 world 1500m champion and London 2012 bronze medallist, to win over the testing course with a 18:07 clocking.

Intriguingly Mimi Belete’s sister, Alemnsch, finished third for Belgium — further highlighting the nationality issue in athletics — one second ahead of Britton who ran 18:23.

The two-time European cross country champion had some consolation in beating Britain’s Gemma Steel (6th), who won silver in Belgrade at the European cross, and Charlotte Purdue (5th) who won at Antrim in 2011 and won European U23 bronze last month.

The Wicklow woman is still struggling to return to top form and is lacking the turnover in the final kilometre to be in contention at the business end of races.

Britton will compete in the Great Edinburgh Cross Country match between Europe, the United States and Great Britain on Saturday.

It was another African- dominated race in the men’s 10.8km event with world cross country champion Japhet Korir of Kenya prevailing in 28:40 ahead of Uganda’s Thomas Akeyo (28:42) and Kenya’s Emmanuel Bett (28:43). There was a slight Irish connection with the victors as they are represented by Donegal man Ricky Simms, whose more famous clients include Mo Farah and Usain Bolt.

The best of the Irish was Michael Mulhare who came 7th in 29:47 in difficult underfoot conditions. Earlier in the day 16-year-old Carlow’s Siofra O’Flaherty put in an impressive display to win the junior women’s race in 12:47 from Gillian Black of Scotland.