Though Kenya and Ethiopia won all six team titles between them, there was nothing unexpected about the women's long-course title going to Paula Radcliffe. On Saturday, she regained the honour first won in the Belgian mud a year ago, though not quite as comfortably as some of the Leopardstown bookmakers would have made her.
This was also the race that gave the briefest indication that the African reign in cross country was not all-conquering. Two Americans chased Radcliffe to the line, with marathon specialist Deena Drossin taking silver just nine seconds back.
While the Americans also earned themselves a place on the medal podium (second in between Ethiopia and Kenya), the Irish women had a difficult afternoon. Maria McMahon ran solidly to take 45th place, but the team was 12th of the 13 finishers, in front of Uzbekistan.
Yesterday the Irish senior men were out to match the eighth place long-course team finish of a year ago, but ended up a disappointing 15th of the 20 finishing teams.
National champion Peter Mathews ran with typical heart and at his very limit and ended up in 45th place. Mark Carroll started out a little faster and eventually landed 49th position - a solid run considering his recent lay-off through injury.
Seamus Power ran through his hamstring injury to take 65th, with Fiacra Lombard the fourth man home in 93rd.
No surprise here, though, as Africa took the three team medals (Kenya, Ethiopia, then Morocco), with the emerging Tanzanian John Yuda taking silver behind Kenenisa Bekele, and Wilberforce Talel the best Kenyan in third. Defending champion Mohammed Mourhit of Belgium dropped out.
It meant that best of the Irish men over the weekend was Gareth Turnbull's 25th place in Saturday's short-course race. Again there were few signs that the African rule would end soon, though the young Australian, Craig Mottram, broke the trend to take fifth place behind Kenenisa Bekele.
Unfortunately the home soil could do little to inspire the Irish juniors. Yesterday the men struggled home in 17th position, again edged out by Uzbekistan for last place. Top finisher Mark Christie (87th) summed it up quite easily: "Well I looked up at one point, and the others were so far ahead I couldn't believe it. The Africans were just incredible."
There were some incredible things about the Ethiopian winner Gebre-egziab Gebremariam. It was his first time outside Ethiopia, and he ran his first race only last December. But then he's been training with that man Bekele.
For the record, the junior women finished 16th of the 18 teams, led home by Fionnuala Britton in 72nd place. There were some hard Irish lessons then over the weekend, but one glorious story to go with them.
SUNDAY
MEN'S LONG COURSE: 1 K Bekele (Eth) 34.52, 2 J Yuda (Tan) 34.58, 3 W Talel (Ken) 35.20, 4 R Limo (Ken) 35.36, 5 C Kamathi (Ken) 35.29, 6 A Chepkurui (Ken), 7 A Goumri (Mar) 35.35.43, 8 Y Kifle (Eri) 35.47, 9 E Mitei (Ken) 35.49, 10 J Gharib (Mar); Irish placings: 45 P Mathews 36.59, 49 M Carroll 37.09, 65 S Power 37.36, F Lombard 38.21, 112 J Burke 39.06, 124 Martin McCarthy 40.22.
Teams: 1 Kenya 18, 2 Ethiopia 43, 3 Morocco 58, 4 France 71, 5 USA 107, 6 Spain 121; 15 Ireland 190.
JUNIOR MEN: 1 G Gebremariam (Eth) 23.18, 2 A Cheruiyot (Ken), 3 B Kiprop (Uga) 23.28, 4 T Kiplitan (Ken) 23.33, 5 E Kipchoge (Ken) 23.39, 6 S Sihine (Eth); Irish placings: 87 M Christie 26.38, 90 W Harty 26.40, 103 J Sweeney 27.12, 107 K Seaward 27.41, 111 A McCormack 27.59, 112 E Higgins 28.13.
Teams: 1 Kenya (18), 2 Ethiopia (24), 3 Uganda (37), 4 Japan (77), 5 Morocco (89); 17 Ireland (252).
WOMEN'S SHORT COURSE. 1 E Masai (Ken) 13.30, 2 W Kidane (Eth) 13.36, 3 I Ochichi (Ken) 13.39, 4 B Johnson (Aus) 13.42, 5 S Favor-Hamilton (USA) 13.47, 6 A Negussie (Eth) 13.53, 7 S O'Sullivan (Irl) 13.55, 8 A Godana (Eth) 14.00, 9 R Martin (Ita) 14.01, 10 A Keenan-Buckley (Irl) 14.03; Other Irish placings - 19 R Ryan 14.14, 62 M McCambridge 14.49, 64 V Vaughan 14.50, 92 M Harrington 15.30.
Teams. 1 Ethiopia (32), 2 Kenya (34), 3 Ireland (85) 4 Russia (86), 5 Australia (86), 6 USA (90).
SATURDAY
MEN'S SHORT COURSE: 1 K Bekele (Eth) 12.11, 2 L Kipkosgei (Ken) 12.18, 3 H Mekonnen (Eth) 12.20, 4 S Kipketer (Ken) 12.26, 5 C Mottram (Aus) 12.27, 6 J Nyamu (Ken) 12.30, 7 A Jimenez (Esp) 12.30, 8 J Kosgei (Ken) 12.32, 9 K El Amri (Mar) 12.33, 10 D Maazouzi (Fra) 12.34; Irish placings: 25 G Turnbull 12.45, 63 R Connelly 13.04, 84 P Reilly 13.19, 93 P McNamara 13.26, 94 M Kenneally 13.26, 107 G Coughlan 13.55.
Teams: 1 Kenya (20), 2 Ethiopia (32), 3 Spain (57), 4 Morocco (78), 5 USA (113), 6 France (117); 12 Ireland (190).
WOMEN'S LONG COURSE: 1 P Radcliffe (Gbr) 26.55, 2 D Drossin (USA) 27.04, 3 C De Reuck (USA) 27.17, 4 M Yamanaka (Jpn) 27.19, 5 E Kuma (Eth) 27.19, 6 M Denboba (Eth) 27.21, 7 L Aman (Eth) 27.25, 8 R Cheruiyot (Ken) 27.28, 9 P Chepchumba (Ken) 27.30, 10 T Erkesso (Eth) 27.32; Irish placings: 45 M McMahon 29.07, 58 O O'Mahoney 29.42, 63 P Curley 30.04, 68 T Duffy 31.02, 71 G Hendricken 31.40, 74 M Danagher 32.25.
Teams: 1 Ethiopia (28), 2 USA (38) 3 Kenya (41), 4 Japan (67), 5 Great Britain (69), 6 Portugal (84); 12 Ireland (171).
JUNIOR WOMEN: 1 V Kibiwot (Ken) 20.13, 2 T Dibaba (Eth) 20.14, 3 V Cheruiyot (Ken) 20.22, 4 F Domongole (Ken) 20.23, 5 P Chepchumba (Ken) 20.24, 6 B Bekele (Eth) 20.34; Irish placings: 72 F Britton 23.21, 87 L Byrne 24.15, 89 M Gallagher 24.21, 100 L M Coohill 25.26, 101 A Hutchinson 25.35, 105 A Baker 25.53.
Teams: 1 Kenya (13), 2 Ethiopia (24), 3 Japan (63), 4 Australia (77), 5 USA (87), 6 Russia (106); 16 Ireland (248).
