ATHLETICS:SHORTLY AFTER she crossed the finish line, Fionnuala Britton sat back on her heels, put her hands across her face and cried. These were tears of anger as much as disappointment. Finishing 36th in the World Cross Country wasn't the result anyone had wanted.

Given she had finished 14th in the brutal heat of Kenya a year ago, the rolling, muddy hills of Holyrood Park looked purpose-built for her, just like running the hills of her native Wicklow.

Instead, the 23-year-old never looked at home, her form and strength abandoning her when she wanted them most.

But Britton has a steely interior that will still serve her in years to come, and in the mixed zone she wiped the tears from her eyes and bravely faced the hard question: where did it go wrong?

"To be honest, I wasn't feeling the best beforehand," she said. "But then you think it's nerves, and try to convince yourself that you're grand. It wasn't anything in particular. But it just wasn't there today.

"It's just a pity. I should have been better than that. I mean, there were so many athletes ahead of me that just shouldn't be. But when they came past me I just couldn't react."

Earlier Britton had been just inside the top 30, but never got in contention for a higher place. Every athlete has days like this, we reminded her.

"Yeah, it's just a pity when it happens on these days. It was always going to be hard, but it just shouldn't have been that bad. I felt comfortable after 800 metres, and it seemed to slow down. It was hard, there was so much Irish support out there. And it's hard when you're getting some sympathy claps after the second lap."

Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba won back her senior title, after taking silver last year, but only after enduring a stitch mid-race that looked certain to reduce her to a minor placing.

She calmly worked her way to the front inside the last half mile to win by five seconds from her compatriot Mestawet Tufu.

Dibaba's young sister Genzebe had earlier won the junior race in awesome fashion, beating Kenya's best, Irine Cheptai, with another Ethiopian, Emebt Etea, third.

And shortly after that, Ethiopia produced a one-two in the junior men's race, as Ibrahim Jeilan and Ayele Abshero once again had too much finishing speed for Kenya's Lucas Rotich.

Still, all this only partly explains the hard afternoon for the Irish. Linda Byrne, in 57th, was the next best of the Irish behind Britton, but when it came to the team tally, Ireland's total of 232 was a very disappointing 11 of 12 finishers.

Among the junior women, Sara Treacy ran well to take 32nd, with Ireland's only other entrant there, Patricia Barry, 53rd.

The junior men appeared to go out too fast, and paid a high price. Craig Murphy ended up best of them, in 48th; the national champion Michael Mulhare was 75th.

The team ended second-last, in 14th, beating only the Russians.

"The pace was just lightning-fast," said Mulhare. "I'll learn from that, big time. Hopefully I can improve next year."

Mulhare, quite clearly, won't be the only one looking to improve.