So near and yet so far as Cullen puts up a superb effort

EUROPEAN CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS:COME THE end of yesterday's European Cross Country Championships in Brussels the Irish team was left with an overwhelming feeling that if it wasn't for bad luck, they'd have had no luck at all.

For long stages of the senior women's race Mary Cullen looked to have run herself into the bronze medal position, only to see it slip away on the last lap as she finished up just two seconds short of a place on the podium.

Earlier, both the junior and under-23 women had also ended up fourth in the team result, and not long into the last race of the day, the biggest medal hope of all, Martin Fagan, slipped and fell while in pole position - thus killing the chances for the Irish senior men's team as well. The only consolation, perhaps, was that maybe they'd get in it right this time next year when the event comes to Santry in Dublin.

None of this, however, should take from what was still a superb display of confident and determined running by Cullen, the 26-year-old from Sligo who had missed almost the entire first half of the year through injury. She put herself to the fore from the gun, and for the opening three laps of the 8km race was never outside the top three. When the Kenyan-born Hilda Kibet - now running for the Netherlands - made a decisive surge, the race was broken up. Cullen hung tough, initially battling it out with the two experienced Portuguese athletes, Jessica Augusto and Inês Monteiro.

Augusto got away first, and then, on the last lap, Monteiro. While Kibet took the win in style in 27:45, Cullen was just two seconds away from bronze in 28:04, and the truth is the soft, muddy conditions looked more suited to the Portuguese.

"To be honest I always thought I could get a medal," said Cullen, with the inevitable mix of emotions. "I knew I was in that kind of shape, but I just struggled a little on the second lap. I was moving back and forth with Monteiro, but she just got it back on the last lap, and fair play to her. I felt like I was closing again at the end, but I still have to be happy. It was a muddy course, and I'm not exceptionally good on the mud.

"But then I've been preparing for this since May, having got over a stress fracture at the start of the year. When I knew the Olympics were gone, which was a massive disappointment, then everything was aimed at this. I did a lot of tough training, and the injuries somehow make you stronger, make you hungrier. But with Dublin next year, I'm even more excited to go for the medal next time."

The other big pity about that race was that the next two leading Irish women, Fionnuala Britton and Aoife Byrne, had missed out with injury, otherwise team medals would have been a distinct possibility. But with Deirdre Byrne next best in 29th, they could only manage ninth.

Coming to Brussels both the junior and under-23 women looked capable of medals, and that makes finishing fourth seem so far, rather than so near. Linda Byrne had finished sixth in last year's under-23 race, yet found the pace a lot harder going this time, and although she still ran well to finish 10th, that probably killed off the medal chances as they ended up 23 points short of third-placed Germany, with Britain winning gold (and, amazingly, winning medals in all six team races).

The Irish junior women were closer to bronze medals, and with Sara Treacy leading the way in 12th, they ended up just 15 points short of Russia. Britain, incredibly, filled the top six places there, as Stephanie Twell collected her third successive individual crown.

By the time the senior men's race started the course was well cut up - and thus treacherous in places, particularly around some of the very tightly-angled corners. It was around one such corner, some 4km into the 10km race, that Fagan hit the ground.

Within seconds he went from first to around 30th, and although he managed to regain some ground to finish 24th, Fagan was clearly disgusted with the turn of events. Part of that frustration being that the question of his medal potential went unanswered. It remained highly competitive up front for a good while, until Britain's Mo Farah looked to inject a telling surge - only for Ukraine's Serhiy Lebid to close it up, and then gun him down inside the last 600 metres to collect a remarkable eighth European title.

"I lost concentration, obviously, and just tried to get up as quick as I could," explained Fagan, knowing his fall also knocked the team chances, as they ended up seventh. "I couldn't get my head back into it. That's where I like to be, at the front, but when something like that disrupts you, your stride is gone and it is very hard to pick yourself up. Before I knew it I was in 30th place, and from there on it was so hard, so disheartening, to have seen so many people go by you. They're going at such a fast pace, and you don't get a second chance to get back into it.

"I felt a little sick coming over here, probably wasn't 100 per cent today anyway, but I definitely thought I could have been top five, realistically, but maybe I am another year away from a medal. So maybe next year, on the home course, I'll be more excited about it too. But turning sharp corners like that, for a big guy like me, it is easy to lose balance. I just seemed to get caught up between two guys beside me, and lost my footing."

15TH European Cross Country Championships

Senior men:1, S Lebid (Ukraine) 30:49; 2, M Farah (Britain) 30:57; 3, M Mohamed (Sweden) 31:13; Irish finishers: 24, Martin Fagan (fell) 31:57; 32, Alan McCormack 32:11; 36, Gary Murray 32:17; 37, Andrew Ledwith 32:17; 42, Mark Carroll 32:27; 74, Mark Christie 34:32.

Team:1 Spain (39); 2 France (49), 3 Britain (54); 7 Ireland (129).

Senior women:1, H Kibet (Netherlands) 27:25; 2, J Augusto (Portugal) 27:54; 3, I Monteiro (Portugal) 28:02; Irish finishers: 4, Mary Cullen 28:04; 29, Deirdre Byrne 29:18; 41, Rosemary Ryan 29:47; 57, Hazel Murphy 31:22; 60, Kerry Harty 32:13; Ava Hutchinson DNF.

Team:1, Portugal (29); 2, Britain (49); 3, France (78); 9, Ireland (131).

Under-23 men:1, A Lalli (Italy) 24:56; 2, A Vernon (Britain) 25:04; 3, S Bayrak (Turkey) 25:17; Irish finishers: 24, David McCarthy 25:58; 33, Richie Yeates 26:08; 37, Mick Clohisey 26:18; 57, Paul Pollock 26:47; 60, Jason Fahy 26:55; 65, John Coghlan 27:05.

Team:1, Britain (19); 2, Italy (42); 3, France (62); 8, Ireland (151).

Under-23 Women:S Kuijken (Netherlands) 21:02; 2 S Tunstall (Britain) 21:10; 3 Y Zarudneva (Russia) 21:24; Irish finishers: 10 Linda Byrne 21:58; 21 Rose-Anne Galligan 22:18; 23 Ciara Durkan 22:20; 26 Holly Knight 22:23; 41 Aisling Baker 22:57; 64 Eimear O'Brien 25:18.

Team:1 Britain (24), 2 Russia (44), 3 Germany (57); 4 Ireland (80).

Junior Men:1 F Carvalho (France) 18:42; 2 S Moen (Norway) 18:47; 3 H Chahdi (France) 18:49; Irish finishers: 19 Craig Murphy 19:23; 40 Ian Ward 19:44; 51 David Flynn 19:55; 59 Michael Mulhare 20:03; 84 Patrick Flynn 20:52; Shane Quinn DNF.

Teams:1 France (50); 2 Norway (51); 3 Britain (52); 8 Ireland (169).

Junior Women:1 S Twell (Britain) 13:28; 2 C Purdue (Britain) 13:39; 3 L Howarth (Britain); Irish finishers: 12 Sara Treacy 14:14; 15 Charlotte Ffrench O'Carroll 14:15; 17 Ciara Mageean 14:19; 33 Lorraine McCarthy 14:22; 54 Tara Jameson 15:05; 60 Rebecca Ffrench O'Carroll 15:13.

Teams:1 Britain (10), 2 Ukraine (58), 3 Russia (62); 4 Ireland (77).