Louise Damen won the women's long course race at the 2003 BUSA National Cross Country Championships leading Loughborough to victory in the team competition with 14 points on Saturday, 1st February. Damen covered the 6k-course in South Park, Oxford in 22:57. Suzanne McCormick (Lagan Valley) running for Queen's University Belfast stormed home to finish an impressive 6th place in 24.03. Lagan Valley's Jill Shannon, running for Glasgow Caledonian was 30th in 25.32 and DSD's Ava Hutchinson (Loughborough) placed 41st in 26.05.

Olly Laws (Loughborough) won the men's long course title covering the 10.25 kilometres in 33.39 and leading his team to honours with 26 points. Freya Murray (Heriot University) won the women's 3,000m title in 10.54 and Edward Jackson (Nottingham) won the short course men's race in 13.01. St. Malachy's Tom Frazer (Loughborough) placed third 13.21 with brother Jon Frazer placing 9th in 13.51.

The Maratona Clube de Portugal won the women's team title with 10 points placing their runners in 1st, 2nd and 7th place at the Copa de Europa de Clubes Decampo a Través (European Cup of Clubs for Cross Country) held in Jaén, Spain on Sunday, 2nd February. Ireland's representative on the ladies side, Finn Valley AC placed 10th with 95 points (30th, 31st and 34th). Margaret Synnott was 30th in 21.26, Catriona McGranaghan was 31st in 21.32 and Kay Byrne crossed the line in 21.58 in 34th.

Dundrum South Dublin's men's squad placed 12th with 212 points. The winning team was C.A. Adidas (Spain) with 10 points. Robert Connolly led DSD placing 22nd in 27.47 with Colin Roberts next in at 29.32 (53rd) followed by Gerry McGrath in 30.28 and Tony Halloran finishing 86th in 31.38.

Paul Brizzel broke Gary Ryan's National 200m indoor record on Saturday, 1st February with a run of 21.06 in Birmingham. Gary Ryan's record was 21.13 set in Paris, France on 7th March 1997. Earlier this season, Brizzel led the 200m world indoor rankings in this early part of the season after producing a clocking of 21.43 in Manchester on 28th December.

This indoor season has been filled with good news for Brizzel who was nearly decapitated by a television camera while running his 200m heat at the European Championships last summer. he was givine an opportunity to qualify running alone but did not advance.