Kiernan angered

Jerry Kiernan, coach of the Irish team to compete in the World Athletics Championships at Leopardstown in March, accused the organisers of this weekend's international cross country race at Stormont, Belfast of shoddy treatment of his squad members.

The former Olympian said the organisers had overspent on leading foreign athletes and taken the goodwill of top Irish athletes for granted.

Earlier this week it transpired Seamus Power, winner of the Ras Na hEireann and a member of the European bronze medal winning Irish team at the European Cross Country Championships in Malmo before Christmas, would have to pay his own way. The organisers claimed they had no budget to fund Power. However, they invited his team-mate, Belfast's Gareth Turnbull, to take part.

"The way Seamus Power has been treated by the organisers is very shoddy," said Kiernan. "They should have asked him to run. They should have brought him up the night before. They should have treated him like the athlete he is."

Paula Radcliffe heads the elite list of runners and it is assumed a substantial part of the budget went on bringing her to Belfast. "I don't know what they are giving Paula Radcliffe but what happens in these situations is that one or two runners get practically everything. They bring in stars hoping to attract television," he said.

A number of athletes on the Irish squad will leave for Portugal on Sunday for warm-weather training.