Eight Irish athletes to compete at World Cross Country Championships in Belgrade

Eight athletes have been selected to represent Ireland at the World Cross Country Championships in Belgrade later this month.

Following on from a successful European last December in Brussels, Athletics Ireland has announced its team to compete on Saturday, 30 March.

Fiona Everard (Bandon AC) and Danielle Donegan (Tullamore Harriers AC) will once again don the green singlet in the senior women's 10,000m race.

Everard caused a major surprise when she became national cross country champion last November in Gowran and then went on to finish 34th in Brussels a month later.

Donegan, who is the reigning U23 national cross country champion, finished eighth in her age category at those championships in Belgium and will be hoping for a positive start to her time in the senior athletics ranks.

Keelan Kilrehill (Moy Valley AC) and Hugh Armstrong (Ballina AC) came close to making the podium as part of the senior men’s team who finished fourth at the Europeans last year, with both placing inside the top twenty that day in gruelling conditions.

Two of the gold medal winning Irish U20 men’s team from those championships will make the journey to the Serbian capital, with Seamus Robinson (City of Derry Spartans AC) and Harry Colbert (Waterford AC) aiming to emulate their heroics from that memorable day as they race over 8,000m.

Anna Gardiner (East Down AC) and Kirsty Maher (Moy Valley AC) will return to international action in the U20 women’s 6,000m race.

Gardiner impressed when claiming the senior girls title at the All-Ireland Schools Cross Country Championships last weekend, while Maher last represented Ireland at the Celtic International Cross Country in Scotland in January where she won bronze.