ATHLETICS/European cross country championships: Led boldly by the ambitious Mark Christie, the new generation of Irish distance runners announced their arrival with immaculate timing. The silver medals won at yesterday's European Cross Country championships junior men's race ends a difficult year for Irish athletics on a positive note, and also opens up a new future for the sport when it is most needed.

Yet medals were never unexpected, and the junior men had travelled to Heringsdorf in Germany knowing they carried the main hopes of the Irish team. In the end the biggest surprise was that they didn't take home gold.

It saw Christie leave the best race of his marvellous junior career until last, to take fifth overall - one place better than last year. But with Andrew Ledwith finishing seventh, Danny Darcy 11th, and Jamie McCarthy 31st, the Irish were assured of a leading team finish. And they would have won gold had the Russians not packed tightly on the last lap of the 5.6km race.

There was however a major upset when Hungary's Barnabas Bene out-kicked the two top Russians to win individual gold in 16 minutes, 18 seconds. Defending champion Yevgeniy Rybakov was second in 16:19, with his twin brother, Anatoliy, in third, while Christie was just edged out for fourth by Poland's Lukasz Parszczynski, who clocked 16:43.

It was still a hugely satisfying run for the Mullingar athlete, now a second year student at Dublin City University. He was holding fourth up until the last lap, partly inspired by the hopes of leading his Irish team-mates into the medals. And so at 19 Christie now knows he can at least mix it with the very best in Europe.

"I suppose I'm a little bit disappointed that I lost out on fourth place in the finish, but getting the team silver more than made up for that. And I think that this result augurs well for the Irish senior team in the future because I think we can all progress from here.

"I think this team effort could be the beginning of a new era for Irish distance running. I think we have to be optimistic for the future, especially with the right support and programme of training and competition."

When entering the last of the four laps, the Irish team were poised for glory, on 52 points, with Britain and Russia both with 59. But with four athletes to score, the third and fourth Russian runners made up massive ground on the last lap, closing 18 places between them. So the Russians were crowned European champions on 42 points, with Ireland's 54 still well clear of Britain's 63. Thus they improved on the bronze medals won in Slovenia in 1999.

There was nothing quite so satisfying for the Irish teams in the other three races. The senior women had won silver in Edinburgh last year but without Sonia O'Sullivan or Catherina McKiernan could this time only manage 10th, led home by Jolene Byrne's respectable 16th place.

Maria McCambridge was clearly below her best when ending up 33rd, with victory going to Britain's Hayley Yelling - just clear of Poland's Justyna Bak and British team-mate Jo Pavey.

The Irish senior men were a little ambitious at the start of their 9.6km race, with Gary Murray soon to the fore. At the finish Vinny Mulvey was the best of them in 27th, with Mark Kenneally a disappointing 59th. Murray ended up 64th, one place ahead of Paul McNamara. They finished 12th of the 15 teams.

No such problems for defending champion Sergiy Lebid of the Ukraine, who just bided his time before galloping away from Spain's Juan Carlos De La Ossa. Roseanne Galligan did produce one of the best Irish results in the junior women's race by coming through to take 13th, but unfortunately that couldn't inspire the team to anything better than 12th position.