Distance runners by their very nature are not prone to making excuses yet there was no hiding the hard luck stories when the Irish team arrived home yesterday from the European Cross Country championships in Switzerland.

The senior men's team had gone into Sunday's event with genuine intentions of repeating the bronze medal result of year ago but the wheels came off one by one and they ended up 10th of the 12 scoring teams.

Manager Jerry Kiernan says that even in all his years' experience he had never seen as many off days by an Irish team.

"Whenever you go away with a team of 20 or more athletes you expect one or two to under-perform," says Kiernan. "But the only one who came away happy in the senior men was Martin McCarthy. He finished 46th but has been out of serious running for a year.

"It was the first time I've seen Gareth Turnbull run disappointingly in a big race and Peter Mathews was sick a couple of weeks ago and was clearly a pale shadow of himself. Seamus Power would also have been looking to finish a lot higher than 29th.

"Athletics can go like that, and I think as well the standard was higher than last year. But it doesn't take long to bounce back from something like this and I'm sure they can improve for the World Cross Country in a few months."

Kiernan is at least consoled by the fact that Sonia O'Sullivan will be a contender for the world championships when they come to Leopardstown in just over three months time. Currently in Melbourne, O'Sullivan is expecting her second child within the next few days but has been doing a lot of biking and swimming to keep fit and is targeting a return in competition in time for Leopardstown.

"Obviously O'Sullivan won't be at her absolute peak," says Kiernan, "but an 80 per cent fit O'Sullivan would still be a huge addition to the Irish team. She was back running very well within a similar period of her first baby and I'm sure she can run well in Leopardstown.

"And it would be encouraging that the senior women still finished fifth in Switzerland despite so many problems. For a while it looked like Una English wouldn't start after a recurrence of a back injury and Breda Dennehy-Willis was also having problems breathing because of allergies. Maria McCambridge also fainted on the morning of the race because of illness and Valerie Vaughan is still coming back from a bad experience in the Dublin marathon."