Cormac Dalton shoots for the stars with National Cross Country title defence ambitions

Athlete Cormac Dalton has hopes of making the Irish team for the European Cross Country Championships in Antalya.

After the year he’s had, you could forgive Cormac Dalton if he set the bar a little lower. Maybe just shoot for a top-three finish, try to book his place on the Irish team for next month’s European Cross Country in Antalya, Turkiye. But ask the Mullingar Harrier his goal for tomorrow’s 123.ie National Cross Country Championships and the 26-year-old isn’t long aiming skyward.

“It’s to defend the title,” he says. “Making the team – I’d see that as plan B. It’d be the least I’d expect. I don’t know if that’s cocky to say, but I’d be very disappointed if I didn’t make the team.” 

The way he sees it, this is a free shot, the expectation resting firmly on his rivals’ shoulders given their superior track seasons. Still, Dalton goes into the race as the reigning champion, having fulfilled a long-held ambition by winning the national cross country title in Gowran last year, faring best in the shin-deep, slop-fest of mud. But tomorrow will be different, with decent underfoot conditions expected at the Castle Irvine Estate in Fermanagh, the senior distances also now reduced from 9km to 7.5km.

“It changes it a little bit, definitely plays into the hands of the faster, shorter (distance) guys. The best thing about cross country is you get 1500m guys competing against marathoners, and it plays more to the 1500m/5K guys. The shorter a cross country race is, the more ferocious, the more you can hurt.” 

If last year was a steady, slow-roasting effort, this will feel more like being launched into a scalding pan, with the in-form national half marathon record holder Efrem Gidey sure to set a searing pace and teenage star Nick Griggs – who smashed the Irish U-23 5000m record in the summer, clocking 13:13.07 – a huge threat in his first year in the senior ranks.

“If anyone can drop him, it’ll be impressive,” says Dalton of Griggs. “It’s like Jakob (Ingebrigtsen) coming up into our age group for the first time. I’d actually say Griggs is the favourite based on times and form – he’s performed at cross country. The key thing is: Can you stick with Efrem and can you drop Nick in the last 2K?” Dalton will sure as hell try, though having not raced since the track season, his true fitness will only be revealed tomorrow. What boosts his confidence is he’s rediscovered something that was missing earlier in the year: consistency.

Dalton came into 2024 hoping to secure Olympic qualification over 10,000m, aiming to rewrite the Irish record of 27:39.55. But in January, he developed an inflamed Achilles tendon after doing a calf raise incorrectly. Didn’t feel that serious at the time, but it was enough to keep him sidelined for eight weeks. “It knocked some of the hopes for the year,” he says.

Cormac Dalton on his way to winning last year's National Cross Country Championships. 

Still, he put down a decent block of altitude training in St. Moritz, Switzerland in April and made his debut at the European Championships in Rome in June. But the wheels fell off during that 10,000m, Dalton finishing 35th in 29:15.30, over a minute outside his best.

“It was miserable, to be honest – the hardest 10K I’ve ever done,” he says. “I was happy with how I felt on the start line as I prepared as good as I could but you’re not long being found out at that level, and I was found out pretty quick. It was a tough first (championship) experience on the track, and that’s what I want to be getting to grips with. The next time I hope I can be competitive as it’s not much fun being in those races being a passenger.” 

He fared much better at the European Cross Country in Brussels last December, following up his national title with an eighth-place finish, leading the Irish men’s team to fourth. “When you back up the performance, compete against guys who’ve run certain times on the track, you get that taste of what it’s like,” he says. 

“Running with those guys gives you that confidence. I wasn’t one of those super juniors, I probably have an inferiority complex in total but for cross country, I have a bit of superiority complex where I can step on the line and feel confident, feel that no matter what way it goes, I’ll be able to give it a nice rattle.” 

Things have gone smoothly on the build-up to nationals, with a four-week altitude camp in Font Romeu, France bringing along his fitness. Such stints are made possible via an understanding employer, with Dalton doing 20-24 hours a week of remote work for engineering firm FPK.

He did his undergraduate degree in biotechnology at DCU before following the well-worn scholarship trail to the US, completing a master’s in business administration at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma before returning home last year and rejoining longtime coach Joe Ryan.

His time in the NCAA has taught him how to handle a blazing-fast 8km cross country race – useful for what’s ahead tomorrow – while last year’s nationals proved he’s just as adept if the underfoot going truly gets tough. After a challenging year, things feel like they’ve finally turned a corner in recent weeks.

“I was clamouring all summer to try get some form together but it never really came. I broke four (minutes) for the mile which was something to come away from the season but I just didn’t have that consistency,” he says. “I can feel that consistency coming back and that’s all I was targeting. I felt things flip over the last three weeks to how I wanted to feel all year.

“We’ve hit some sessions harder to realise where I’m at and the numbers are showing I’m close to the same shape as last year. I know it’s defending the title, but I feel I’ve been slightly under the radar this year and it’s a good position to be in. I see it only as a positive. Now that I’ve won it, let’s make people work very hard to take it off me.”