FROM THE ARCHIVES WORLD CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIP, Monday, March 29th, 1993:CATHERINA MCKIERNAN'S place among the leading athletes in women's long-distance running was confirmed in another performance of outstanding merit in the World Cross Country Championship at Amorebieta, outside Bilbao yesterday.

Sadly, as in last year’s championship in Boston, she again had to settle for the silver medal – this time behind Albertina Dias of Portugal – but it ought not obscure one pertinent fact.

Eamonn Coghlan, John Treacy and Marcus O’Sullivan notwithstanding, this was one of the great runs in the history of Irish athletics, a performance of class and courage which eclipsed even that compelling run in the snow 12 months ago.

The pedigrees of the first six across the line, Dias, McKiernan, Lynn Jennings, Zola Budd , Liz McColgan and Elena Mayer made this, almost certainly, a higher quality race than the Olympic 10,000 metres championship in Barcelona.

Moreover, the character of the race on a tight undulating track, ensured that the going price of gold on a bright but cool day in Bilbao , would be abnormally high. Eventually, it required a time of 20 minutes even to track down the title for Dias, breathtaking pace for the journey of 6,450 metres, making this quite the fastest women’s cross country race ever run.

Insofar as the 28-year-old Portuguese woman has been at the forefront of her chosen sport in recent years, few, apart from the Irish, could begrudge her the supreme moment of fulfilment. In the three previous years she had been second, sixth and third in her relentless pursuit of this prize. To that extent, the smiles of triumph were all-embracing as she raced through the finish line.

Yet, for the 23-year-old Cavan girl, silver was a bitter-sweet reward for this, unquestionably, the best performance of her career. Afterwards, she was uncharacteristically emphatic in rejecting theories that her display was somehow flawed by her failure to catch Dias over the last grinding 500 metres.

In Boston, she had stayed impressively strong, right to the death, kicking and kicking again in a vain attempt to detach herself from Jennings. Now the priorities were vastly different. In an attempt to cover all the stratagems at the front, the Irish girl had worked hard , desperately hard over the last 1500 metres – and it showed.

Whereas a year ago, she had finished full of running, she was now functioning on auto pilot over the last 200 metres. And, as they came down the finishing straight, she was steadily losing contact with Dias to the point where nine seconds, a wholly deceptive margin, separated them at the finish. More alarmingly, she was being caught by the converging pack with every stride and had the race gone on for another ten metres, she would very likely, have been caught by Jennings who, after all her problems in going with the early pace, came with a tremendous rattle at the finish.

Yet, overall, her input here was significantly higher. It was her vision and bravery which fashioned the plot of the race to a large degree after Zola Budd’s blistering early pace had threatened to burn off all but the most resilient.

Even as one threat receded, however, another emerged. For all Budd’s competitive qualities and she was one of three previous winners in the race – there were many shrewd South African commentators who reckoned that her compatriot, Elena Mayer was the better bet to strike gold.

Budd had taken the field through the first two kilometres in six minutes 10 seconds, but as the chasing pack sought to compose itself in the hope that the leader would come back to them, Meyer bolted to the front. At Barcelona last summer, she had shown herself to be an exceptionally fast finisher and the expectation was that she would tuck herself in behind the leaders to deliver a late challenge here.

In that, the pundits got it wrong. Totally unexpectedly, she emerged to head Budd and for the next 2,000 metres or so, was running with sufficient fluency to suggest that she was, indeed, capable of going all the way with her challenge.

Significantly, McKiernan was the first to respond to Mayer’s break and after the gap had stood at six metres at one point, the South African was gradually reeled in. In a matter of 100 metres or so, the mechanical drive left her legs .

In Boston, Liz McColgan had suffered more than most in the snow and when she failed to find the pace to escape from the pack over the first 200 metres , it looked as if she would again struggle to make any kind of impact.

McKiernan, to her credit, responded perfectly in the mad charge for position in those crucial early stages and, unlike McColgan, was able to run the middle part of the race with impressive economy of effort. The Scot, on the other hand, was working hard throughout but the longer it went on, the better she got.

Almost unnoticed, she progressed from a position in the mid-twenties to reach the top eight with 1000 metres to go but that, as it transpired, was the summit of her ambition.

Mayer was caught and dropped by McKiernan and Dias at 5,200 metres and the enthusiasm of the 80 or so Irish supporters in the stand – including Cavan TDs, Tom Boylan and Brendan Smith – bespoke the growing hope that this might, after all, be McKiernans year. Even as we savoured the prospect, however, there was disturbing evidence of Dias’s well-being.

Strong and composed, she showed no outward sign of weakening under the pressure and when she decided to go for home, 1100 metres from the finish, she quickly opened up daylight between herself and the Irish girl.

Bravely, McKiernan tried to cover the break and, for a few illusory strides, it looked as if she might be holding her. Gradually, however, the bitter truth dawned that the Portuguese runner was gone and that she would now have to work even harder to hold second place.

Jennings, seeking to win the championship for a record fourth consecutive year, was growing stronger all the time and as McKiernan began to fold under the pressure, the bitter possibility materialised that she might, in the end, be run put of the medals.

Fortunately, it never came to that and at an age when all her best years are still ahead of her, she can now look for forward with some confidence.