Britton cuts a colourful dash at Holyrood

With a splash of purple in her hair, Fionnuala Britton cut a new look for the new year and battled to an encouraging second place at the picturesque Holyrood Park for the Bupa Great Edinburgh Cross Country on Saturday.

The Kilcoole athlete finished nine seconds behind Britain’s Gemma Steel (20:35) in 20:44 over the challenging 6km course but overturned France’s European champion Sophie Duarte who finished fourth in 20:57. Emelia Gorecka (Great Britain) was third in 20:51 with Sara Treacy finishing 22nd in 21:39.

“Every week seems to throw up something different,” said Britton. “I’ve ran three races since the Europeans and in all of them I’ve beaten someone who was ahead of me at some point. It would be nice to do it all in one day and win something.

“I know I was second today and it’s not the worst but I feel like I’ve kind of lost as well. I’ve come here winning the last two years-in-a-row. It would have been nice to do a hat-trick.

“It’s obviously not the worst position to be in. It’s not like I’ve gone from first to last but there is still a long way to go.”

But there were plenty of positives for Britton who faces a new training regime this year. The teak tough Wicklow woman, who was running for Team Europe in the three-team international match, including Great Britain and USA, looked like she might drift back through the field at one point but dug deep.

In the men’s 8km race Michael Mulhare had an excellent run to finish fifth in 24:32 defeating European champion Alemayehu Bezabeh of Spain in a race won impressively by USA’s Chris Derrick in 24:11. David McCarthy finished 11th in 24:49.

There was a bit of stir in the men’s 4km race when USA’s Garret Heath won in 11:51 ahead of Kenenisa Bekele and Asbel Kiprop. Bekele is currently running 150 miles a week in preparation for the Paris marathon on April 6. Stephen Scullion finished 10th in 12:20.

Meanwhile in Athlone, Michael Bowler (KCH) won the men’s title at the indoor action Woodie’s National Combined Events Championships with a score of 3,528 points over Kourosh Foroughi (Star of the Sea) with 3,390 and Eoin Kelly (St Abban’s) with 3,263.

Laura Frey (Lagan Valley) prevailed over Karen Dunne in the women’s with a total of 2,869 points to Dunne’s 2,821. Sarah Mesloh (Ballon Rathoe) finished third with 2,548. Mark Rogers (St Peter’s) and Sarah McCarthy (Mid-Sutton) won the junior titles with scores of 3,172 and 3,572 respectively.