Britton the highlight of Irish performances in cross country

Fionnuala Britton took silver today for Ireland in the Under 23 event at the Spar European Cross Country Championships in Legnano, Italy.

The 22-year-old DCU athlete ran a superb race and finished second in a time of 18:56. This was just nine seconds behind the highly fancied Turkish runner Binnaz Uslu who took gold.

Ireland’s other great medal hope was Mullingar Harrier’s Mark Christie in the men’s Under 23 event. However he never really got going in the race and ended up finishing 19th in a time of 23:47.

Dundrum’s Joseph Sweeney ended up finishing ahead of Christie in 13th place recording a 23:33 and along with the performances of Andrew Ledwith (24th), Mick Clohisey (46th), Mark Hanrahan (62nd) and Mark Kirwan (75th), this ensured the Irish team secured a 4th place finish overall in the Men’s Under 23 race.

The best performer in the senior races for the Irish was Mary Cullen in the women’s event. Cullen finished 14th in a time of 23:54, while the team finished 8th overall.

One of the Irish team’s brightest prospects in the Men’s senior event was Martin Fagan but unfortunately he had to withdraw prior to the race due to a stomach bug, something which also caused Rosemary Ryan to pull out the Senior Women’s race.

The best placed for the Men’s Senior team was Clonliffe Harriers runner Mark Kenneally who finished 31st in a time of 29:01. He was closely followed in by Vinny Mulvey in 29:15 and Gary Murray in 29:23.

Other highlights for the Irish in Italy was the performance of Rose-Anne Galligan in the Junior Women’s event as she finished 12th in a time of 13:22, while in the Junior Men’s race Brendan O’Neill was the best of the Irish as he came 19th recording a time of 17:34.