ATHLETICS National Inter-Counties Cross Country Championships:IT WAS bitterly cold at Tramore racecourse yesterday; a bitter wind too, with occasional sleeting rain. True cross-country conditions.

Not a day for the upstarts or unproven, yet Alan McCormack displayed unexpectedly true cross-country qualities to win the National Inter-Counties title in what was one of the more surprising results of recent years.

The 24-year-old Dubliner wasn't widely rated as a title challenger, at least not by those who were, and that probably contributed to their downfall as McCormack took the men's 10km race by the scruff of the neck, and one by one his challengers fell away. In the end he had 18 seconds to spare on Mark Christie from Westmeath, the champion of two years ago, with defending champion Gary Murray of Donegal another seven seconds back in third.

Although he always displayed promise, McCormack had never before displayed such composure and determination in such a quality race. He had surprised a few people by winning the Dublin title earlier this month. The ease with which he ran away from class athletes such as Christie and Murray was hugely impressive.

"I'm delighted with that," he said. "The course really suited me, with a couple of good challenging hills. But I've been training much smarter this season as well. Less mileage, and more quality. I was feeling strong and just decided to go early and see what happened."

Both Christie and Murray took a tumble early on in the race, briefly losing contact, but not enough to affect the outcome. McCormack looked compact and strong as he covered the testing ground, which ran the perimeter of the racecourse, and in the end it looked like he was merely enjoying one of his training runs around Marley Park - completing the 10km course in 32:12.

A product of the Dundrum South-Dublin club, and still coached by Eddie McDonagh, McCormack is doing a PhD in Marketing at UCD. Yesterday's victory guaranteed him one of the three automatic places on the Irish team for next month's European cross country in Brussels, where he will be joined by Christie and Murray, and three other athletes to be decided later today.

Mick Clohisey took fourth, having done some of the early running, but is eligible for the under-23 grade at the Europeans - as is yesterday's senior women's winner Linda Byrne. In the absence of defending champion Fionnuala Britton through injury, Byrne produced the most convincing victory of the afternoon to come home almost half a minute clear of Wicklow's Deirdre Byrne, and help ensure both senior titles went to Dublin.

Also a member of Dundrum South-Dublin, Byrne finished sixth in the under-23 grade at last year's Europeans and is a definite medal contender this time. Having recently graduated with a Sports Science degree at DCU, she is training full-time towards that goal and on yesterday's evidence is improving with every race.

Byrne ran well to place second, and will lead the senior women's team, with Hazel Murphy of Dublin taking third. US-based Mary Cullen is sure get one of the remaining places. Likewise Martin Fagan will come into the senior men's team, as a genuine medal contender at the Europeans.

Yesterday's two junior races were particularly exciting. Cork's Craig Murphy got into all sorts of trouble when he lost one of his spikes inside the first 200 metres. Initially he tried to reclaim it, and having lost considerable ground looked to be out it. However, in the spirit of Lasse Viren, he gave chase and eventually got back in touch. Although Michael Mulhare of Laois still looked more comfortable, Murphy summoned the courage for one more challenge and took the win, finishing some 13 seconds in front.

Sara Treacy of Meath had missed most of the past year with a pelvic-related injury, but put that behind her to win the junior women's race. Now in her second year of medical studies at Birmingham University, Treacy got the better of the Ffrench-O'Carroll twins from Dublin, Charlotte and Rebecca, who took second and third respectively. Once again, Dublin won both team titles - thus completing a full sweep.