Brian Fay produced a superb display to finish 16th in the men's World Cross Country Championships in Florida, while a strong showing from Niamh Allen and Fiona Everard saw both Irish women finish inside the top-25 in the women’s event.
The course terrain at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee featured 2km laps that included a 90ft rollercoaster ramp, sand, a water pit, a mud pit, plus alligator logs.
The men's event, similar to the women's, was five laps with Fay making progress throughout to finish 16th out of a field of 106 in a time of 29:37.
Fay, who won the Irish national cross country title in November before a month later being a scoring member of the Irish team that won a historic silver medal at the European Cross Country Championships, the first by an Irish senior men's team in 25 years, continued his fine form in Tallahassee.
The 26-year-old was placed 34th after two laps, 12 seconds off the lead, and while the pacesetters predictably went up the gears at the front, Fay was able to pick up a number of places.
In lap three he moved up 10 positions and took the bell 20th overall. A strong final 2km saw him just edged out of 15th place by world 10,000m champion Jimmy Gressier.
Fay was the fourth-highest European.
"I'm buzzing," he said afterwards. "After a poor World Outdoor Champs, I wanted to come here and make a statement. I wanted to put it up to those guys and put them under the cosh. I’m happy I represented, and that I ran well."
"I was feeling good pretty much the whole way. It was tough, but I’m rubbing shoulders with some very good guys – fourth European and they’re all sub-27-minute (10,000m) guys. So it bodes well for the future."
As expected, it was a race dominated by African runners, with Uganda's Jacob Kiplimo (28:18) taking victory ahead of Ethiopia’s Berihu Aregawi (28:36) and Kenya’s Daniel Simiu Ebenyo third in a time of 28:45.
In the women's race, Allen (21st) and Everard (22nd) performed well to finish inside the top-25.
After the opening lap, World Cross Country debutant Allen found herself 33rd, five places better off than compatriot Everard, who came into the event on the back of a 10th-place finish at the recent European Cross Country.
The Irish pair looked comfortable and pushed on with Allen the third-best European to finish 21st in a time 34:19, with Everard just three seconds and two places behind her.
The race was won by Kenya's Agnes Ngetich (31:28), who had 42 seconds to spare over Uganda’s Joy Cheptoyek, with Ethipioa’s Senayet Getachew (32:13) edged out for third.
Ethiopia took team gold, with silver for Kenya and Uganda taking bronze.
In the men's U20 race, Noah Harris placed 38th overall in a race dominated by Kenya.
The 18-year-old from Wicklow, who is currently studying at the University of Tennessee, started out strong and kept pace with the leaders from the outset.
With a lap to go he was still nestled inside the top-20, but struggled when the pack kicked for home.
In a field of 69 runners that completed the 8km route, Harris finished in a time of 26:03, with Keynan Frankline Kibet edging out compatriot Emmanuel Kiprono with a winning time of 23:18.
Indeed it was a race dominated by the East Africans, with Kenya scooping the team title with the perfect score of 10 courtesy of filling the top four positions.
