Mark Carroll was promising better to come after his hopes of a big run had dwindled to a modest 21st placing in the men's short race at the World Cross Country Championships at Belfast on Saturday.

Basing his strategy on his ability to go with the early pace, the Irishman sprinted from the off - and still found as many as 20 athletes ahead of him rounding the first bend.

"After that, I sensed that I was going nowhere on the day," he said. "That early pace was unbelievable, and when the top Africans build up a lead you know, deep down, there is no way that they're going to come back to you.

"Looking on the positive side, I hope to learn from the experience. My winter training has been geared to the track season, and with luck I will be able to salvage something useful from this run."

The European 5,000 metres bronze medallist was in good company after a startling opening kilometre of two minutes 44 seconds by the Kenyans, Benjamin Limo and Paul Kisgei, had wrought havoc among their opposition.

Even on good running ground - the course hadn't yet yielded to the weather which would later turn it into a quagmire - that was spectacular. And while the pace slowed significantly in the middle stages, the damage had been done for those lost in that frenetic charge at the start.

For a period, Kosgei looked the more comfortable of the two front runners, but when the leaders were required to dig even deeper, it was Limo who came up with the better response in the run to the line.

Paulo Doglio, the Italian running in Ireland's colours for the first time, acquitted himself reasonably well in 41st place, and behind him came Cormac Finnerty (60th) and Cormac Smith (62nd).

The great debate after Gete Wami of Ethiopia had crushed her rivals over the last two kilometres of the women's long course race centred on how Sonia O'Sullivan and Catherina McKiernan might have made out against the revitalised African.

O'Sullivan, fit enough to undertake some brisk running before the race, shrank from offering an opinion, but the certainty is that she would have had to produce one of her better performances to beat Wami on the day.

After a valley period, the Olympic 10,000 metres bronze medallist in Atlanta is now functioning with all her old power. Aggressive throughout, she was at the cutting edge for the entire journey before moving inexorably to the front with two laps to go.

Rosemary Ryan was best of the Irish in 38th place with Teresa Duffy and Marie McMahon in 72nd and 77th positions respectively. In the team event, Ireland finished a disappointing 13th.