Cragg’s Irish baptism of fire

ALISTAIR CRAGG may not yet by an household name back in Ireland, but he may not be all that far from achieving superstar status.

Like John Treacy in Bellahouston Park in 1978, Alistair Cragg will line up for today’s short course race at the world cross-country championships in Brussels as an outsider, but prepared to take on the world.

Unlike that historic day in Glasgow when Europeans held the balance of power in distance running, these days it is firmly in the grip of the Ethiopians and the Kenyans but, as an Irishman born in South Africa, he does not fear the African domination.