special to Irish Runner.com by Eoghan Young-Murphy

Athletics Ireland has announced, as has become standard practice, they will be sending a full complement of teams to the 2005 European Cross-Country Championships in Holland on December 11th.

Over the past few years, it has been the Association's policy to give young athletes the opportunity to compete in this competition to gain international experience, while only a select few picked for the global event - the IAAF World Championships - in March.

This has proven a wise decision, with the Junior Men's sextet - Mark Christie, Andrew Ledwith, Danny Darcy, Jamie McCarthy, Joe Sweeney, and Mark Hanrahan - winning silver at last year's event with a total of 54 points. This was the first in five years that an Irish team ascended the podium at this level; a team comprised of Gary Murray (8th), Brian Keane (15th), Mark Smyth (20th) and Joe McAllister (75th) landed bronze at Valenje, Slovenia in 1999.

And though this year in Colin Costello and Danny Darcy, who won gold and silver respectively at the European Junior 1500m Championships in July, we have perhaps two of the most promising youngsters we have ever produced, it seems unlikely that achievement will be replicated.

Meath native Costello, a new recruit of John McDonnell at the University of Arkansas, has decided to use the winter season to recuperate from his heady summer exploits, while last year's team leader, Mark Christie, who also made considerable strides during the summer, is ineligible for the grade.

But a shaft of light among the gloom is provided by the senior men's' team, who look on course to bridge a five-year gap and at least match the bronze medals won by the outfit in 2000. Alistair Cragg has earmarked the race as the one to mark his revival on the world stage and if Mark Carroll, Keith Kelly and Gareth Turnbull are anyway near their best form, success is surely on the cards.

A junior women side spearheaded by Rose-Anne Galligan - she is aiming for a top ten spot in the individual race - could record a respectable finish for the first time in many years. Yet Sonia O'Sullivan, now training Down Under in hope of having a successful spring track season in Australia, seems certain to be marked absent, which could decimate the Irish women's chances of glory.

Instead, the women's hopes will be on Maria McCambridge, Jolene Byrne and recent Providence College graduate Mary Cullen, the reigning Irish 5k Champion.

It was also announced that the first three athletes in the junior and senior National Inter-County championships in Sligo on the 27th November will be automatically selected, the remainder of the team will being chosen at the selectors' discretion.

In preparation for the European Championships a squad of 10 athletes will travel to Tilburg in the Netherlands to compete in a major international event on Sunday 13th November.