Athletics: The Irish team will travel to this weekend's World Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh tomorrow without Keith Kelly and Maria McCambridge after both withdrew from the 21-strong squad.
Kelly was forced out due to injury while McCambridge, who has been replaced by Annette Kealey, opted to focus her attention on the forthcoming European 10km Challenge in Istanbul.
Despite the absentees, team manager Anne Keenan Buckley is confident of a strong showing from the Irish contingent.
"To lose Keith and Maria is disappointing but it provides a great opportunity for Annette to come in and experience a World Championships," Keenan Buckley said earlier today. "The fact that the event is taking place on our doorstep will mean we are not travelling too far and the climate will be familiar to all our runners.
"It will also be a lot easier to adapt to the course compared to Toro (in Mombasa) last December. The level of competition will be fierce but we have a lot of quality athletes on this team who are running well at the moment so we can hope for some good performances on Sunday."