Athletics/ National Intercounties Cross Country Championships: It's not always easy for outstanding juniors to deliver on their potential at senior level, but for Mark Christie and Fionnuala Britton that process is so far proving fairly swift and smooth.

Two years after winning the National Intercounties junior cross country at St Augustine's College, Dungarvan, Christie was back on the same course yesterday to win a senior title.

And Britton, another former junior champion, also collected her first senior title. And both won in convincing style. Christie (21) stamped his authority early, testing the pace and strength of his rivals before easing away on the last of five laps, covering the 10 kilometres in 31 minutes and 19 seconds.

The Mullingar man oozed class in reaffirming his status as one of Ireland's best distance prospects. He actually seemed to ease up approaching the finish but was still never in danger from the fast-finishing Gareth Turnbull, who moved from fourth to second in the last 200 metres, ending up just four seconds adrift.

It proved a particularly satisfying run for Turnbull given his recent five-month ordeal to clear his name of a doping charge, plus the fact he is a track specialist.

There were plenty of further battles going on, with team places at stake for next month's European cross-country in Italy.

Defending champion Gary Murray of Donegal took third and he is sure to travel, as is fourth-placed finisher David Kelly of Sligo. Athletics Ireland will announce the teams today.

A couple of places are clearly up for grabs. The news that US-based Alistair Cragg won't travel was compounded by Turnbull's statement he won't be competing either, and it also remains to be seen if Christie will contest the senior race or the new, experimental, under-23 category.

As a former sixth-place finisher in the junior race, Christie is clearly capable of mixing it with the best in Europe at either level.

"I've been training very hard," he said. "I didn't make the Europeans on the track this summer, and that was a big disappointment. I did start questioning myself a little after that.

"But I put the head down . . . I'm doing up around 100 miles a week now and feeling stronger, and actually this was the first time I came into a senior race thinking I could win it.

"Men's distance running is strange, and it does take a long time to develop that strength to run with the seniors. I felt like this could be the time to move up, put down a bit of a benchmark, and establish myself as a senior. And hopefully°, I did that."

For Turnbull, the Europeans just don't fit into his preparations for the indoor track season, which given his performance here should be productive. And at 26, the Belfastman is setting big targets having cleared his name.

"Some people might see it as a sensational return to the sport," he said, "but I just see it as getting back to work. But of course that's why what happened in the last few months was such an emotional experience, because days like this were at stake.

"But I wasn't coming here to prove a point. I haven't achieved half of what I want to achieve in athletics yet, and this was just another step along the way."

He confirmed he was seeking compensation from the Irish Sports Council over the unproven doping charge.

"The effort and financial cost should be repaid," he said. "The Irish Sports Council crashed into my life and walked away, not expecting to financially reimburse me in any way. And that's wrong."

Turnbull's effort was particularly gutsy. He kept getting detached in fourth, dropping off 10 or 15 metres, yet kept fighting back and was fully deserving of his silver medal.

For Britton, victory was particularly decisive, though it has to be said the field lacked any great depth. Anyway, the Wicklow woman was clearly a class above the rest on the day, dominating from very early on to win by a massive 45 seconds from Limerick's Rosemary Ryan and Dublin's Aoife Byrne. Like Christie, Britton is a product of DCU's fast-improving school of athletics. She covered the eight kilometres in 28:13 - at times looking not unlike a certain Catherina McKiernan, a former winner of the race. Limerick's Cathal Dennehy took the junior men's title with an eight-second winning margin over Dublin's Brendan O'Neill. Kildare's Rose-Ann Galligan was best of the junior women, also winning by eight seconds, from Meath's Sara Treacy.