Classy Cragg eager to leave injury problems behind

ALISTAIR CRAGG is relishing a testing return to the international track scene this month as he bids to put a bittersweet 2005 firmly behind him.

Cragg began last year in fantastic form, defeating Ethiopian star Kenenisa Bekele over 3,000 metres indoors before being crowned European Indoor champion over the same distance in Madrid last March.

The rest of the year was spent nursing a stress fracture in his lower back, however, and the South African-born runner missed almost the entire outdoor season, including the World Championships in Helsinki and was a late withdrawal from the Irish team for the European Cross Country Championships in Holland.