National cross country champion Gary Murray had a fine run in Tilburg in Holland where he finished third in a race won by Moroccan Issa Dghoghi. The winning time of 29m44s was some 14 seconds faster than Murray's time of 29m58s. This is a fine start to the season for the Donegal man and he will now be one of the favourites for the Inter Counties in Sligo in two weeks time. Paul McNamara finished 15th in the race. Donore's Jolene Byrne also had an impressive run finishing 5th. in the womens race followed by Orla O'Mahoney in 8th. Finola Britton 9th, Aoife Byrne 10th. and Maria McCambridge 16th. Breffni Twohigh illustrated her potential with a fine 2nd place in the Junior Womens event followed by Sarah Treacy in 7th. place. Raheny's Mick Clohissey was 5th. in the Junior Mens with DSD's Brendan O'Neill 13th. Meanwhile at Santry in The Dublin Championships Rob Connolly was a runaway winner of the mens race. Finishing 48 seconds clear of clubmate Joe Sweeney with Gary O,Hanlon third. This was a very fluent piece of running from Connolly and he is also bound for Sligo where he should on the evidence of this run have a say in the destination of the title. Sportsworld's Emer Martin won her first ever Womens Championships leading for most of the distance with Annete Kealy holding off the much improved Niamh Devlin for 2nd.