Cragg jogs before putting back into Helsinki effort

ATHLETICS: After a 12-week lay-off with a back injury Alistair Cragg has finally returned to light jogging and started a slow comeback aimed towards the World Athletics Championships in Helsinki in August.

Cragg had been unable to run a single step in the three months since delivering his remarkable gold medal performance over 3,000 metres at the European Indoor Championships in Madrid, and he is still unsure when he can return to full training. With the outdoor track season now springing into action, Cragg has just over two months to prepare for the 5,000 metres in Helsinki. Should he get back to his best he would travel as Ireland's only real medal prospect.

"This is the first week I've been able to get back jogging," explained Cragg, speaking from his new house in the suburbs of Fayetteville, Arkansas. "So first of all I'll have to see how the back responds. I'm either going to have to take more time off, or else be able train hard again.

"I was actually meant to take another two weeks off, but I started back early, because I need to if I want to run at all this summer. So I'm jogging about three or four miles, twice a day. As soon as I can run a week or so without pain I'll get back into my full schedule, and get ready for August."

Within days of returning to his American base after Madrid he found himself unable to run with a pain in his back, which was first diagnosed as a compressed disc, possibly brought on by the long flight. An MRI scan revealed an active stress facture of the lower back, or sacrum, which immediately ruled Cragg out of the World Cross Country Championships, where he was confident of contesting a medal. He initially spent six weeks on crutches, and was unable to do anything that might help maintain his fitness.

"I didn't even feel it coming on, it was just like I was shot in the back, but there was obviously some imbalance in the legs of some sort, and I don't think the indoor season did it any good, especially the travelling over to Europe.

Even if I tried to get into the swimming pool it would tighten up and get irritated again, so I decided just to let the thing heal . . I do get fit very quickly, that's not really the problem, so it's just a matter of letting it heal properly, and then working on the rehab and the fitness.

"Hopefully if everything goes well I should be back for the World Championships. I just don't know exactly what kind of shape I'll be in. But I missed two months before Christmas because of a hernia operation, and within six weeks I was fit enough to beat Kenenisa Bekele indoors. So I'm not worried about that. I'm worried there will be some more recurring pain or related pain. But if I'm pain free I'm not worried at all."

Meanwhile, Sonia O'Sullivan made a brief visit to her native Cork yesterday to launch the 54th BUPA Ireland Cork City Sports, set for the Mardyke on Saturday, July 2nd. O'Sullivan confirmed her participation in the 3,000 metres, where her opponents will include European Cross Country champion Hayley Yelling.

Among the other headline acts will be Britain's double Olympic champion Kelly Holmes over 1,500 metres, and Olympic and World long jump champion Dwight Phillips.

One of the annual highlights of the athletics calendar takes place tomorrow with the staging of the Kit Kat Irish Schools' Track and Field Championships, which start at the Tullamore Harriers Stadium at 9.0am and continue non-stop until 6.0pm.