Paula Radcliffe strolled to the easiest victory of her career in today's Fila International Cross Country around the grounds of Stormont Castle.
With top Ethiopian athletes Worknesh Kidane, the 1999 world junior cross country champion, and Meseret Defar, last summer's world 5,000metres silver medallist, failing to obtain visas to make the trip to the Belfast, Radcliffe was a runaway winner of the 4.8-kilometre race.
Runner-up Tara Kryzwicki, the English national champion, and third-placed Helen Pattinson, who reached the Olympic 1500m semi-finals, did put Radcliffe's pre-race plans slightly out of joint by setting a brisk pace on the first lap.
But by the conclusion of the next circuit Radcliffe had the race sewn up. The Bedford star held a nine-second lead over former Welsh international footballer Kryzwicki, who had a similar advantage over Preston's Pattinson.
Radcliffe, whose winning time was 16min 51sec, said: "I was planning to just sit in the field and then put in some surges later on, but the other girls went off very quickly and the first lap was quite fast.
"Helen and Tara were alongside me at that point and I found myself just going along with the flow of the pace as they fell away. After that I just kept going but I was impressed they were prepared to have a go at me." - PA