Great Britain’s Mo Farah has confirmed his intention to compete at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships on December 13th as the event visits Ireland for the first time.

The 26-year-old has identified the European Cross Country in Dublin as his next big race after winning the BUPA Great South Run in Portsmouth at the weekend. Farah came home in a time of 46:25 to show some impressive form ahead of the race in Santry Demesne and will now be highly fancied to win the title he narrowly lost out to against Ukrainian Sergey Lebid in Brussels last year.

The current European Indoor 3,000m champion will now travel to Kenya for some altitude training for five weeks as he prepares to wrestle the Cross Country title from Lebid. “My aim is to go to Kenya with my mates and train with the (Kenyan) boys at 8000 feet and get ready for Dublin. That’s the next big step when I compete in Ireland and until then it’s a case of staying injury free and focused,” Farah said.

Farah will be part of a strong Great Britain team with the final squad to be confirmed after the UK Athletics (UKA) trials in Liverpool on the 28th November. Head of Endurance with UKA, Ian Stewart MBE, believes the Irish conditions will suit the Great Britain team. “The Santry Demesne course is a typical British Cross Country Course but it is all weather dependent. With rain it will be tough but our team will be used to those conditions,” Stewart said.

The Euro Cross is the start to our season and it couldn’t be a better start being so close to us and with the facilities and structures put in place by Athletics Ireland we would be confident of a strong performance in Dublin,” Stewart went on to say.

Farah will face stiff competition in Dublin from the reigning champion Sergey Lebid, but also from Ireland’s Martin Fagan who has been in some good form of late following an injury hit season. Fagan finished tenth at the Great South Run over the weekend in a time of 48:26 as he continues to build up his form after an Achilles injury kept him out of action for a lot of the year.

The SPAR European Cross Country Championships will take place in Ireland for the first time on the 13th of December in Santry Demesne, Dublin. For more information and regular updates on the event and to sign up to the mailing list for the SPAR European Cross Country Championships then log on to www.Dublin2009.ie. Athletics Ireland is supported nationally in running this event by the Irish Sports Council, Fáilte Ireland, Dublin City Council, Fingal County Council, RTÉ, Failte Ireland and Clonliffe Harriers.