Fionnuala Britton took a tumble early in the 2013 running of the Bupa Great Edinburgh Cross Country International Challenge Race. But the defending champion from 2012 recovered and went on win in dominating fashion. Her 16-second final margin kept her current campaign on the same impressive track as last season, adding the Great Edinburgh repeat title to the repeat Euro Cross title she won in Hungary four weeks prior.

Facing a strong British team, along with perennial European challenger Ana Dulce Felix and a battery of Americans, the Dublin-based cross country star overcame a fall while exiting a creek early in the proceedings. Britton scored a 20-second victory last year on the same hilly course, but faced a more accomplished field this time around: Read the full article

On Sunday, Fionnuala Britton retained her European cross country crown on a snowy course outside Budapest, becoming the first woman in history to successfully defend the senior women’s title. Britton once again battled Ana Dulce Felix of Portugal — the European champion at 10,000m — and ground out a victory over the final four kilometers, notching a two-second victory.

KIMbia partner, Ian Chaney, described the developments, saying, “Fionnuala took the lead after 2km and persisted to surge and press the pace burning off those in the main group.” Naturalized Belgian Almensh Belete hung on the Dublin-based athlete, until late. “With two laps to go it was down to herself and the Belgium athlete, who dropped going into the last lap,” he said. “Felix the Portuguese then set chase for Fionnuala but it was to much. Great race in minus 7 conditions!”

Indeed, the weather was difficult as temperatures never went above “freezing” with frozen footing across the snow. But, like Britton, the rest of the Irish contingent took to the tundra-esque conditions and followed her in 8th, 20th, and 23rd Read the full article

‘Next year’ is the phrase I hear most often following the 2012 Nike Cross Nationals in Portland. From the hotel restaurant post-race, to Sunday morning breakfast in the lobby, to the bus ride to the airport.

Through the lens of NXN, youth isn’t so wasted on the young. On Friday, Saturday — through the entire week leading up, really — the high school athletes in Portland on Nike’s dime manage to simultaneously be hyper-aware of what’s at stake Saturday even as they soak up every minute of a fabulous opportunity. It’s the full embodiment of what an old-timer like Shaw wished for the younger generation: Read the full article

Cross country and Fionnuala Britton clearly get along just fine. European Cross Country Champion a year ago, and an eight-time qualifier to the World Cross Country Championships, the Irishwoman got the hill-and-dale season off to a strong start in Atapuerca, Spain on Sunday.

Hiwot Ayalew (Ethiopia) and Linet Masai (Kenya) took home top honors, with Britton’s fourth-position finish putting her second among potential entrants at the European championships, coming up on December 9th. The Dublin-based athlete was in the lead pack early and battled with a group of Britons and Portugal’s Sara Moreira, after the two East Africans broke away. In the end, Britton would beat the Portuguese Olympian but finish just six-seconds back from Team GB’s Jessica Coulson.

Over a course just shy of 8-kilometres, Britton clocked 25:48.

Four KIMbia athletes took the line at the IAAF World Championships in Cross Country, with Lineth Chepkurui captaining her Kenyan team, Shalane Flanagan and Brent Vaughn headlining the US senior women’s and men’s teams, respectively, as the reigning national champions, and Andrew Bumbalough making his senior debut after competing in the junior race in 2006.

Brent Vaughn placed 55th, which was something of a disappointment to the Boulder-based runner.  He positioned himself to take a shot at a Top 25 finish, sitting in the chase pack through three laps, and hitting 6k in 30th place. After one more steady circuit in the mid-30′s, he began to struggle and said the conditions didn’t agree with him.

Reached briefly via Skype, Brent offered the following thoughts from Spain when asked to summarize his race:

No good — it was warm. I was out perfectly and covered all the moves well. I had the fitness to be in it, I still believe. I managed the chaos well… I thought I just had some heat problems.

Brent returns to Boulder to prepare for Stanford’s Payton Jordan Invitational on May 1st.