Catherina McKiernan is now targeting the Durham Grand Prix on January 28th as a possible date for her comeback after injury had again put her career on hold at the weekend.

McKiernan will seek medical advice on the damaged ankle which caused her to withdraw from the FILA international event less than 24 hours before she was due on the starting line at Stormont on Saturday.

The Cavan woman could only watch and admire as Paula Radcliffe, one of her great rivals down through the years, held off the challenge of the Ethiopian, Ayelech Worku, a bronze medallist at 5000 metres in the world championships last August, to record her third success in the event.

It wasn't until shortly before midnight that the organisers of the Stormont race were informed officially of McKiernan's latest problem, roughly the same time as the young Kenyan, Patrick Ivuti, was leaving Nairobi en route to another big Belfast performance in the men's race.

Sadly, this latest setback catches the mood of a difficult phase for McKiernan who has never been fully racing fit since encountering her first serious problem in the Amsterdam marathon almost 15 months ago. In the sense that she had put in a lot of work for the Belfast event, it was almost certainly one of her biggest disappointments.

"It looked the perfect race and place, in front of a home crowd, at the start of my preparations for the London marathon in April," she said. "And watching it on television, I think it's one which would have suited me.

"The most frustrating aspect of the whole thing is that I had worked hard to get myself in the kind of condition to win and the great fear now is that if I'm out for any length of time, I will lose that condition.

"Hopefully that will not be the case and I'll be able to compete again sooner rather than later. At this stage, however, I'll just have to wait and see how my ankle improves before committing myself to running in Durham."

The loss of Saturday's race means that, at best, she is now likely to have only one more competitive run before embarking on altitude training. Even that may be dependent on medical reports over the next few weeks.

Inevitably, McKiernan's absence deprived the Belfast race of much of its appeal, a point suitably acknowledged by Radcliffe. "Catherina is a great competitor and I'm certain she wouldn't have been content just to sit in behind me in the middle stages," she said.

"It meant that I had one less athlete to worry about but I was still delighted with my performance. Because of a problem with my foot, I had to take almost a month off. In that situation, I couldn't be certain how I'd react when the pressure came on but, as it transpired, I needn't have worried."

Worku, running comfortably, looked capable of covering any break as they headed out on the third and last lap. Yet, when Radcliffe lengthened her stride, there was no effective response from the Ethiopian and from that point the Liverpool woman was out on her own.

With Worku unable to quicken, Radcliffe was running at her own pace over the last 800 metres of the 4,800 metres journey and eventually had five seconds to spare when crossing the line in 17 minutes 18 seconds.

Anne Buckley-Keenan was quite the best of the Irish competitors in sixth place in a time of 17:50. She showed in the lead in the early stages and while lacking the pace to go with Radcliffe, she could well be satisfied with her run.

Margaret Meade was just three places behind her in 18:13, enabling the Ireland A formation to win the team event from England, with a total of 31 points.

In the absence of Seamus Power, Peter Matthews and Dermot Donnelly in the men's race, one had to go back to 14th place to discover the first Irish finisher, John Ferrin.

Up front, it was the familiar story of an African monopoly with only the Ethiopian Abiyote Abete, in fifth place, preventing a Kenyan grand slam. In Belfast nine months ago, Ivuti beat all but Paul Tergat in the world championship and he illustrated his ability to reverse those placings with his compatriot in Portugal in March with another superb display here.

There were those who probably felt that the hardship of having to travel through the night to get to Belfast in time for the race would ruin Ivuti's prospects of winning. As it turned out, it proved to be no more than an inconvenience as he tucked in behind his team-mate David Busini in the middle stages of the race before accelerating clear on the last of the five laps.