Cragg leads Irish challenge

Alistair Cragg will lead Ireland’s men’s side for the forthcoming IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Saint-Galmier, on March 19 and 20.

However, the women’s team will be without Olympic 5,000 metres silver medallist Sonia O’Sullivan, who after returning from injury and racing in Chiba, Japan, last weekend, feels she is still not ready to compete at the top level.

Cragg, the fastest man in the world this year over 3,000m indoors, has declared for both the long and short-course races.

In the longer 12-kilometre distance he will be joined by recently-crowned national champion Gary Murray from Donegal.

American-born Jolene Byrne and Maria McCambridge head the Irish challenge for honours in the senior women’s long-course competition.