DCU Athletics win bronze at World Championships
Wednsday 9 April 2008

Fionnuala Britton (2nd Individual), Linda Byrne, (8th) and Ciara Durkan (23rd)

The Irish Ladies team led by the DCU trio of Fionnuala Britton (2nd), Linda Byrne (8th) and Ciara Durkan (23rd) won the bronze team medals at the 16th World University Cross Country Championships behind England and Australia. The competition was held in France.

Linda Byrne and Ciara Durkan are both studying the BSc in Sport Science and Health. Fionnuala Britton is a Sports Science and Health PhD student.

Enda Fitzpatrick DCU Sports Academy, Athletics Director, said ‘This was a great achievement for our DCU Academy athletes on the Irish Team. This is the first time in 28 years that Ireland has won Individual and team medals at these championships.’

Fionnuala Britton said, ‘This was a great day for the DCU Athletic Academy and testimony to the great support and development that has gone into athletics over the last 4-5 years’.

Fionnuala Britton put in a huge performance in the individual race losing out in the last 200m to Faye Fullerton from England. In the Men’s race, both DCU representatives Colm Turner (36th) and Kevin Lawler (54th) performed well in helping their team to 7th overall behind France, England and Australia.

Linda Byrne and Ciara Durkan both said that they are delighted to be part of an Irish medal winning team at a major championship.