Christie takes on world best

Athletics Belfast Cross CountryAs the best junior cross country runner in Ireland by some distance, Mark Christie had two options when he was planning the remainder of his season. Go on winning without being truly tested, or set some higher challenges, such as measuring himself against some of the best cross country runners in the world.

Christie has clearly chosen the latter by running the senior race at tomorrow's Belfast International Cross Country around Stormont Estate. Among those joining him on the start line will be five-time world champion Paul Tergat of Kenya, the man who last September also lowered the world marathon record to two hours, four minutes and 55 seconds.

It might sound overly ambitious for an 18-year-old to be taking on Tergat, plus a couple of other world-class Kenyans, and also the best Irish seniors such as Séamus Power and Peter Mathews. Yet Christie is approaching the race purely as an exercise in improvement, the chance to explore new limits ahead of the World Cross Country in Brussels at the end of March.

It will be his first outing since finishing sixth in the junior race at the European Cross Country in Edinburgh a fortnight before Christmas, a result which firmly underlined his exciting potential in distance running. And even more so considering the Mullingar athlete is again young enough for the junior grade next season - and continues to flourish in the home-based college system.

His decision to run the senior race in Belfast was made in careful consideration with his coach David Burke, a former national cross country champion, and Enda Fitzpatrick, coach at Dublin City University, where Christie is in his first year of a business degree.

"Mark is an incredibly mature athlete for his age," says Fitzpatrick, himself a former international, "and he's not going to do anything stupid in Belfast. He'll stay away from the front, just run as hard as he can, and hopefully move up through the field."

Tomorrow's distance of five miles is also well within Christie's range, and is in fact the same distance as the junior race at the World Championships. That race, which takes place on March 28th, remains the main target of the season, although in the meantime he is certain of picking up a third consecutive Irish junior title at the end of February.

While Irish interest tomorrow is reasonably strong on the men's side, the same cannot be said about the women's race. Catherina McKiernan and Rosemary Ryan have withdrawn, and it's been hard to find anyone else capable of making an impression on the leading finishers. The women (5km) set off at 2.05 p.m., the men at 2.45 p.m.