ATHLETICS: Three Irish athletes have been pre-selected for next month's European Cross Country in Tilburg, The Netherlands. Alistair Cragg, Martin Fagan and Mary Cullen - all currently US-based - were chosen ahead of Sunday's National Intercounties championships at Sligo racecourse, which also acts as trials for the Europeans.
The first three home in each of Sunday's four races (men's and women's senior and junior) are also guaranteed places on the Irish team, with the remainder being decided upon by the AAI selectors. Full teams of six athletes will be sent in all four races, ensuring a strong Irish presence in The Netherlands on December 11th.
Cragg was always certain of selection having fully recovered from the lower back injury that ruined his outdoor track season. The European Indoor 3,000 metre champion last week won a 10km road race near his home in Arkansas, and although he hasn't yet raced on the country, his ambitions are already clear.
"I wouldn't be interested in travelling all the way over unless I thought I could win," said Cragg. "I'm very happy with my level of fitness at the moment, and I'm lucky as well that I do get back into shape quite quickly. I am thinking about getting in one cross country race before it, but it's not essential."
Cragg was forced to sit out the entire summer with a stress fracture in his lower back, which required almost 12 weeks of total rest. But he hasn't ruled out another indoor season ahead of next summer's European Championships in Gothenburg: "Right now I'm looking at the World Indoors and the World Cross Country, and keeping my options open on which one I'll focus on. But it will be a strategic call with outdoors in mind on which one I do."
Both Fagan and Cullen are based in Providence, Rhode Island, and will run the Europeans for the first time. Fagan has shown particular good form on the college cross country scene, recently breaking the 27-year-old course record of the famed Van Cortlandt Park in New York.
There'll be no lack of competition on Sunday for the remaining places. Donegal's Gary Murray is the athlete in form, having finished third in a pre-European race in Tilburg earlier this month. But he'll face stiff opposition from Dublin's Rob Connolly and defending champion Vinny Mulvey, also of Dublin. Gareth Turnbull is returning from the US confident that he's regained his old form, and three-time junior champion Mark Christie of Westmeath can't be ruled out either.
One athlete definitely not interested in the Europeans is Sonia O'Sullivan, who is currently training in Australia.
O'Sullivan is currently eyeing a spring marathon as her next competitive outing - perhaps taking in the World Cross County in Japan along the way.
But it now seems certain that O'Sullivan's plan to represent Australia at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne next March has been grounded.
