Thomas Ayeko winning at the 2015 IAAF Antrim Cross Country International (© Mark Shearman)
Defending champion Thomas Ayeko of Uganda and newly crowned European under-23 cross-country champion Louise Carton are the latest athletes to sign up for the Antrim International Cross Country, an IAAF Cross Country Permit meeting, on 16 January.
Ayeko was a convincing winner in Antrim at the start of 2015, making an early break before going on to win by 13 seconds. It was his second victory at the Greenmount estate, having also won in 2013.
Since then, he went on to set a half marathon PB of 1:01:12 in Azpeitia in March and then came within two seconds of that to finish fifth in a high-quality race at the Great North Run in September. More recently, he made his marathon debut with a 2:12:17 clocking in Rennes.
Carton has gone from strength to strength this year. The 21-year-old has smashed all of her PBs on the track in 2015 and last week defeated a quality field to win the under-23 title at the European Cross Country Championships in Hyeres.
In Antrim she will be lining up against 2013 world 10,000m bronze medallist Belaynesh Oljira and world junior cross-country bronze medallist Etagegn Woldu.
Organisers for the IAAF
