Victory in the Great North Cross Country has fast become a Christmas tradition for Ireland's Gareth Turnbull. For the third successive year and fourth in all, Turnbull won the four kilometre race, providing the perfect end to what has been a mixed year for the Belfast runner.

Turnbull came to Newcastle's Exhibition Park on Saturday eager to make up for his disappointing run in the European Championships earlier this month, and after delivering a perfectly-timed kick, came home an impressive winner in 11 minutes 28 seconds. Britain's number one miler, John Mayock once again had to settle for second (11.31), with his British team-mate Andy Graffin in third (11.35).

For Turnbull, the 1,500 metre silver medallist at the World Student Games in Beijing last summer, the New Year can't begin quick enough.

"I knew the Europeans was a one-off," said Turnbull (22), currently studying for a master's degree at Loughborough University.

"I wanted to make amends and everything came together just perfectly. I didn't really fancy my chances, and I really thought there were four or five others who would have finished ahead. I was in much better shape this time last year but obviously a fourth win, including a hat-trick is just great."

His next major target will be the World Cross Country Championships in Dublin next March, where he will concentrate on the similar four kilometre short-course race, while outdoors Turnbull's sights include the Commonwealth Championships, where he is eligible to run for Northern Ireland.

"I will take the World Cross Country as it comes, but everything is being timed for the summer."

Also producing fine form in Newcastle was Anne Keenan-Buckley, who finished fifth in the women's 6.2 kilometre race in 21.02. Victory there went to Kenya's Susan Chepkemei, while Ethiopia's emerging junior Keneisa Bekele destroyed a quality field in the men's 9.2 kilometre race.

Mark Carroll, meanwhile, looks certain to miss the upcoming indoor season because of injury. The Cork runner has returned home from his American base over Christmas nursing a knee injury that required minor surgery and kept him out of serious training for the last number of weeks.

Carroll's immediate target would have been the defence of his European Indoor 3,000-metre title in Vienna in early March, but he is now setting his sights on the outdoor season and the European Championships in Munich in early August.

Carroll won the bronze medal over 5,000 metres in the last edition of the championships in Budapest in 1998.