One of the more punishing cross country races of recent years is being predicted for Ballyhaise tomorrow when a top-three placing in the national inter-counties championship will guarantee selection for the Irish squad for the European championship.

On the last occasion a national championship was held at the Co Cavan venue runners were occasionally ankle deep in mud as they made their way over some difficult terrain.

Now, with surface water on parts of the surrounding countryside resilience is likely to prove more important than ever in a race sponsored for the first time by McDonnells.

In terms of preparation for the European championship, which will be held over a parkland course at Ferrara in Italy on December 16th, the value of tomorrow's race will be limited.

Yet it will serve to provide the national selectors with a useful update on form as they make their long-term plans for the world cross country championships at Belfast in March.

Originally the hope was that Catherina McKiernan would be available to top the entry for the women's race, but even in her absence it promises to be the highlight of a programme which will include a number of BLOE races.

Two years ago the Irish women may have surprised even themselves when, taking their lead from McKiernan and Sonia O'Sullivan, they finished third in the world championship at Turin.

Even in the probable absence of McKiernan, there is hope of another big performance in Belfast in four months' time and persuaded athletes like Una English and Valerie Vaughan to return from abroad to make ready for the event.

English was in action in Switzerland last week but the organisers of tomorrow's race are hopeful that she will be sufficiently recovered to build on the merit of a good track season.

Vaughan is a previous winner of this championship and judged on her impressive running in the final of the European 5,000 metres championship at Budapest in the summer has since matured into an even more formidable competitor.

Marie McMahon goes into the race off the back of some good runs in the United States and with Louise Cavanagh and Marie Lynch also in the field it will require a big run by Kerry's Maureen Harrington to keep the title.

With Vaughan and Cavanagh to show the way, Cork will be favourites to take the team title from a rebuilt Dublin formation.

The collective efforts of Cormac Finnerty, now happily recovered from a recent illness, Tom McGrath and David Burke should be good enough to compensate Westmeath for an unlucky defeat in last year's men's race.

Now, as then, the biggest threat will come from Dublin who, in addition to Peter Matthews, will be looking to those two mature campaigners Noel Berkeley and Noel Cullen to figure prominently at the finish.

Martin McCarthy's impressive win in the Cork championship marks him as another likely contender, but it is a measure of Seamus Power's domination of men's competition in recent years, that every analysis of a national championship, starts and ends with the consistent Clare runner.

Mark Carroll overcame heavy rain and a strong international field to win the 62nd Thanksgiving Day Road Race in Manchester, Connecticut. His time of 21.49 minutes for the 4.75 mile race was just outside the course record but left him 13 seconds ahead of second place finisher Brian Baker of the USA.

A group of 12 were together in the early stages, including leading Kenyans Paul Mwangi and Daniel Kihara, but Carroll made the decisive break at three and a half miles and pulled well clear over the last half-mile stretch. Mwangi held on for third and the other Irish competitor Cormac Smith finished eighth in 22.27.

Carroll now joins an elite group of Irish athletes - John Treacy, Eamonn Coghlan and John Doherty are all previous winners of the race.