Seville the next test for impressive Britton

ATHLETICS:SHE'S THE best in Europe and has now taken the American scalps too, so next up for Fionnuala Britton in her amazing reign on this cross-country season is a test run against the Africans.

If Saturday’s victory in the Great Edinburgh Cross Country is anything to go by, then Britton will relish the challenge. There was a moment towards the end of the six-kilometre race when she glanced over her shoulder, saw no one else within sight, and afforded herself a satisfied smile, as if to say “this is too easy”.

In the end she had a convincing 20-second margin over Gemma Steel from Britain, the only one capable of going with Britton once she gently pressed on the accelerator on the second of the three laps around Edinburgh’s Holyrood Park.

Staged as a team event between Europe, Britain and the USA, it soon turned into a procession for the Wicklow athlete – with the best American Neely Spence finishing 39 seconds in arrears, in fourth place.

Britton clocked 21:32 for the six kilometres yet never once seemed pushed, not even by the steep inclines and muddy course.

However she’s unlikely to have it quite as easy in this Sunday’s Seville International, the sixth stop on the IAAF Cross Country Challenge, where several Kenyans and Ethiopians are already signed up as opposition to the European champion.

The Seville event – known as the Cross Internacional de Itálica, as it is staged around the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Itálica – is the most prestigious race in the Spanish cross-country season; it’s also flat, usually fast, and for the past nine years the women’s race has been won by either a Kenyan or Ethiopian.

The 2011 race was won by Kenya’s Vivian Cheruiyot, who went on to win the World Cross Country – and with no World Cross Country this year (as it’s sadly now gone biennial), the African presence is set to be even stronger this Sunday.

Not that Britton will be too worried. Saturday’s victory suggested the 27-year-old is in even better shape than she was when winning the European title in Slovenia on December 11th, although she admitted she was a little unsure of where exactly her fitness was.

“I suppose I felt the pressure a little bit,” she said. “After the Europeans you had Christmas, the new year, then you come over here and it feels like a big event. And I knew I was the one out there that everyone else wanted to chase down, so I knew I was going to have to have a strong race today.

“You do the training but, to be honest, you don’t really know how strong you are. With the weather being the way it is, and it being so windy, you can’t really measure anything. So it’s nice to come out here and feel so strong, and run like that.”

Steel, in fairness, tried to make a race of it – but when Britton hit the front and ran the second lap two kilometres 20 seconds quicker than the first, there was only going to be one winner.

“It was tough out there in the wind,” said Steel, “but I stuck to my task. But Fionnuala was really strong today. I tried to stick with her as long as I could, and I did as well as I could have done, because she is in phenomenal shape.”

The only pity is that Britton doesn’t have a World Cross Country to target for 2012, although that’s not necessarily all bad, as she believes the time is now ripe to move on from the 3,000m steeplechase – where she has already qualified for the London Olympics – and target qualifying times in the 5,000m and 10,000m.

“It is a bit sad that there’s no World Cross Country this year, as I would have liked to compete. But I’m already looking towards the track, really, and hopefully get the qualifiers in the 5,000 and 10,000. At this stage I’ve been told for a good few years that I need to move up a distance, so I suppose I’ve finally accepted that fact, and I am going to go for it now.”

In the meantime, after the big race in Seville next Sunday there’s a sort of homecoming, as Britton is also a confirmed starter in the Antrim International on Saturday week, January 21st – with one further test lined up at the Almond Blossom Cross Country in Portugal on February 26th, which rates as one of the most competitive cross country races of the season.

Saturday’s men’s international match was won by Spain’s Ayad Lamdassem, with Ireland’s Joe Sweeney a little disappointing back in 11th, while the three-kilometre invitational was won by Kenya’s Asbel Kiprop, the reigning Olympic 1,500m champion, with Ethiopia’s double Olympic champion Kenenisa Bekele finishing a very ordinary-looking 11th.