ATHLETICS/National Cross Country Championships: With both defending champions marked absent we expected some fresh tales of personal triumph at Saturday's National Inter-clubs Cross Country at Santry. What we got also defined the very essence of sporting persistence - never give up.

Maria McCambridge was in danger of being remembered as second best in this event, but not any more. After three successive silver medals and several other minor places, the Dundrum athlete took the women's senior title in the style of a great champion, destroying the rest of the field to win by 21 seconds.

Only Rosemary Ryan could make a race of it. She battled bravely for the first half of the race, but once McCambridge made her move shortly beyond halfway there was only going to be one winner. With so much determination built up over the years she was never going to be caught. In the end it was one of most convincing wins in recent years.

"I really, really wanted that," she admitted. "This race has been very frustrating for me for the past few years, so I'm very pleased to have won it now. But I felt my form was coming good since Christmas once I got over my injury problems, and was quite confident on the day."

McCambridge clocked 28 minutes, five seconds for the 8km race, and the 30-year-old thus adds the inter-clubs title to the inter-counties won two years ago. But she'll move down a distance now and run over 3,000 metres at next month's World Indoors in Moscow.

Ryan, the champion of 2001, is coming from a longer lay-off through injury and was satisfied with her silver, as was Fionnualla Britton with her bronze medal, which was only secured after another personal combat with Orla O'Mahony.

For Vinnie Mulvey, winning a first senior men's title was a similar reward for his renowned effort and dedication to the sport, but his quest for victory had come with some added motivation. No athlete from his Raheny Shamrocks club had ever won this title and when the going got tough over the latter stages his mind turned to former champion Seamus Power, who had lost his brother tragically in recent weeks.

With title-holder Gary Murray ruled out with a knee injury the field may have been weakened slightly, but that didn't prevent the most exciting race in a long while. An elite group of seven soon broke away and any one of them looked capable of winning.

Three-time former champion Peter Mathews made some trademark surges, but along with Mulvey, Mullingar's Mark Christie, Clonliffe's Killian Lonergan and Mark Kenneally, Paul McNamara of Galway and Joe McAllister of Belfast were simply bidding their time.

Then with two of the six laps remaining Mulvey went for it, and quickly opened a 20-metre gap. But it didn't last. Christie and Lonergan joined him again, and suddenly Christie, the youngest of the trio at 21, looked like the one to beat.

"Well I like to run tough," said Mulvey afterwards, "and I don't like sitting back. So I kept trying to make a break, but then the wind kept trying to break me. I thought the boys must be laughing behind me, but when Mark Christie and then Killian went by me I just said no way, I'm not going to be third. I knew I was the long distance guy so I decided to go for it again. Thank God my legs came back a little and once I got the gap again I wasn't going to lose it."

So Mulvey dug deep into his reserves to pass Christie around the final lap, and secure the win by just five seconds. Lonergan had briefly moved into the silver medal position but was passed again by Christie, who continues to make a seamless transition from the junior to senior ranks. Lonergan, who shares an apartment with Mulvey, got some consolation in that he led Clonliffe to the team title.

Mulvey had dropped out of the New York marathon back in November, but soon put that behind him and starting logging up 115 miles a week in preparation for this event. In the end his courageous tactics paid off.

"I hate running in a crowd, and like to put it on the line. That's why I admire Peter Mathews so much, that he was the only other one willing to take it on. That's the way I like to run cross country. Don't hold anything back and let the toughest man win.

"But I suppose experience plays a part and I knew from the training I'd accumulated over the years I'd be able to finish strongly. Before that my mind had turned to Seamus Power, and how he had lost his brother. Thoughts like that do drive you on."

Mulvey will run the Ballycotton road race next weekend, before deciding on the World Cross Country in Japan, where he is the only athlete guaranteed selection.

Sara Treacy upset defending champion Roseanne Galligan to secure the junior women's title. Running in the colours of Moynalvey AC, though better known for her exploits with The King's Hospital, the 16-year-old won by 16 seconds.

Stephen Scullion, the 17-year-old from North Belfast Harriers, was an even more impressive winner of the junior men's title.