The Irish team were in a positive mood today despite two withdrawals ahead of this weekend’s World Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh. The team of 21 is due to fly out to the Scottish capital tomorrow (Friday), ahead of Sunday’s event. Keith Kelly has had to withdraw from the team due to injury, while Maria McCambridge will be absent as she has decided to concentrate on the European 10K Challenge in Istanbul in a couple of weeks. McCambridge is replaced in the squad by Raheny’s Annette Kealey. The team will feature some of Ireland’s top long distance runners including Alistair Cragg, Vinny Mulvey and Fionnuala Britton. There will also be some talented young runners competing in the junior events with the likes of Michael Mulhare from North Laois, Togher’s Craig Murphy and Sara Louise Treacy from Moynalvey/Kilcoon all hoping to perform well. Speaking at today’s press conference Alistair Cragg was looking forward to the challenge of competing in Edinburgh. “My build up has been going really well. I ran in Belfast at the Nationals and I was happy with that, so it was good preparation. It is not often you get to compete against the best in the World so this is a great opportunity.The Africans always seem to race well in Europe and the Americans are also competing at a good level so it will be an extremely tough race but if I can perform to my ability I would hope to get close to a top ten finish.” Team Manager Anne Keenan Buckley is confident the team can do well despite the withdrawals. “To lose Keith and Maria is disappointing but it provides a great opportunity for Annette to come in and experience a World Championships. The fact that the event is taking place on our doorstep will mean we are not travelling too far and the climate will be familiar to all our runners.It will also be a lot easier to adapt to the course compared to Toro last December. The level of competition will be fierce but we have a lot of quality athletes on this team who are running well at the moment so we can hope for some good performances on Sunday.” The World Cross Country Championships take place in Holyrood Park, Edinburgh on Sunday. The Championships will be broadcast live by RTE 2 from 2:00pm on Sunday afternoon. Irish Team – World Cross Country Championships – Edinburgh, Scotland 30th March 2008 Senior Men: Alistair Cragg Clonliffe Harriers Vinny Mulvey Raheny Shamrocks Mick Clohissey Raheny Shamrocks Brian Maher Kilkenny City Harriers Paul McNamara Athenry AC Gary Thornton Galway City Harriers Andrew Ledwith Fr. Murphy AC Senior Women: Fionnuala Britton Slí Chulainn Annette Kealey Raheny Shamrocks Linda Byrne Dundrum South Dublin Orla O’Mahoney Raheny Shamrocks Deirdre Byrne Slí Chulainn Suzanne McCormack Lagan Valley AC Junior Men: Michael Mulhare North Laois AC Craig Murphy Togher AC Ian Ward Finn Valley AC David Flynn Clonliffe Harriers Liam Tremble Metro/St. Brigid’s AC Patrick Hogan Ferrybank AC Junior Women: Sara Louise Treacy Moynalvey/Kilcoon AC Patricia Barry Ferrybank AC
