Ireland finish fourth in Women’s Cross Country

Ireland finished fourth in the women’s senior race at today’s SPAR European Cross Country Championships.

The race was won by Great Britain’s Hayley Yelling who recently came out of retirement to compete.

The 35-year-old came home in a time of 27:49 after a battling performance.

She went into the final circuit over the muddy Santry Park course with a six-second lead over Spain’s Rosa Morato and, despite her lack of competition, maintained her form to clinch an unexpected win.

Second place went to Spain’s Rosa Maria Morato with Netherlands Adrienne Herzog taking bronze.

Best of the Irish was Fionnuala Britton who finished 11th in a time of 28:39 closely followed by Mary Cullen who came 12th in a time of 28:45.

Yelling increased her advantage over Morato to seven seconds by the finish, and also led the Great Britain side to silver medals behind Portugal with Spain finishing third.