It’s often forgotten that all the ground work for a good athletics season takes place in the winter months, away from the sun and spotlight of track and field.
You only get a glimpse of the athlete’s progress if they decide to dip their toes into the mud at a cross-country race. For many it’s also a reality check on how the winter training is going.
That will be the case for many Irish athletes lining up on Sunday at the Templemore Sports Complex in Derry for the National Cross-Country Championships. Now cemented into its late November date, it still feels early in the cross-country season, but there’s plenty at stake on Sunday. Not just for those bidding for a national title.
It’s all about building blocks in the foundation for the year ahead. And the thing with cross-country is that it can be so unpredictable and affected by the course and conditions on the day, especially the conditions underfoot. It’s not always possible to get a true picture of where you are at, and the confidence most athletes will be searching for.
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Sunday’s event again serves as a trial event for next month’s European Cross-Country Championships in the Algarve. In recent years this has been a happy hunting ground for Irish athletes to win medals, and this year should be no exception based on the entries for Derry.
The Irish men’s senior team have not come home with a team medal in 25 years, and this might just be the year to bridge that gap, with expectations already high among this group of athletes.
All the main contenders are entered in the men’s senior event, including the top 5,000m runners of 2025 such as Darragh McElhinney, Brian Fay, Jack O’Leary, Efrem Gidey and Cormac Dalton.
Nick Griggs was the sole Irish medal winner at the 2024 European Cross-Country, collecting silver in the Under-23 race, and will also line-up on Sunday contesting the senior honour. He’s still young enough for the Under-23 race in the Europeans, with the likes Callum Morgan and Dean Casey also making for a strong team.
This team could be also boosted if Abdul Laadjel travels back after the NCAA Cross-Country Championships in the US this weekend, the Dublin runner in excellent form at the University of Oregon, having won the Big 10 Conference title recently.
The senior women’s team will have similar faces and could see their medal chances boosted if Fionnuala McCormack makes herself available after her recent 10th place in the New York City Marathon.
National 5,000m champion and last year’s runner-up Niamh Allen is down to race on Sunday alongside Róisín and Eilish Flanagan, both on the most recent senior women’s team to win a bronze medal in 2022. Ann-Marie McGlynn, Mary Mulhare and Michelle Finn were also on the 2022 team, all aiming to claim a team spot on Sunday.
It’s good to see such strong entries on the men’s and women’s front, the top-three in the senior races getting automatic selection for the Europeans, with the option for Athletics Ireland to select three more.
The junior women’s race will have an added level of interest if recent national marathon champion Ava Crean lines up in the 4,500m event. Crean is entering new territory, running a much shorter distance than her recent marathon success, but it will be interesting to see how she copes with the softer underfoot conditions.
After much success for the junior and under-23 men in recent years, and the obvious increase in standards and times set down this summer, it’s time to see the standards of Irish distance running improve on the women’s side, to help develop the senior teams of the future.
It’s been many years since we have had any real depth in the long-distance events for Irish women. You need this quality of athlete to lift the medal chances for Irish women’s teams even at the European Cross-Country level.
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There was a time in the 1990s and early 2000s when Ireland used to qualify the full quota of Irish women in the 5,000m at the European and World Championships and the Olympics. This hasn’t happened since 2002, and it’s an area that needs improving if we are to get back to the depth we previously had in the long distance events, back when it was the World Cross-Country that drove the winter campaigns.
The one positive that I always see is the spots are there for the taking, the athletes just need to seize the opportunities and find a way to achieve qualifications. The actual World and Olympic qualifying standards are now beyond the reach of many athletes. But back door entrance through the ranking systems are very achievable if an athlete sets out a plan to accumulate points and put themselves in a position to be called upon when the qualification window closes.
The standards are more achievable for athletes in 2026 for the European Championships, but you can’t wait until late in the season. Athletes need to start looking for every opportunity, starting with the European Cross-Country, building belief and composure by competing against the best around.
Over 5,000m, the benchmark for international standard is breaking 15 minutes for women and 13 minutes for men. That’s the reality of things now with the benefit of modern shoes and more athletes training at a higher level together.
This summer, Ireland had three men knocking on the door of 13 minutes, realising this is the bar they have to reach in order to have any chance of competing on the international stage and making finals.
Yet the Irish women have been nowhere near 15 minutes in over 20 years, and this is something that urgently needs addressing if we are to be able to compete on the international stage and go to events like the European Cross-Country challenging for medals every time, not just hoping for success.
The Irish men seem to have worked it out, with a real opportunity in Portugal next month to bring home a medal. For the Irish women, the campaign to improve also continues on Sunday, and maybe rise to the challenge and defy the odds next month.
