Posted: March 2, 2007

Athletics: Cragg Faces Big Challenges In 3000M Title Defense

From David Monti © 2007 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com BIRMIMGHAM (02-Mar) -- At the last European Indoor Championships in Madrid in 2005, Irishman Alistair Cragg romped to victory in the 3000m, beating his nearest opponent, Briton John Mayock, by more than five seconds. But here in Birmingham, as the 29th European Indoor Championships opens this morning, he is admittedly not sharp, and will be facing strong challenges from European Cross Country champion Mo Farah of Britain; European 5000m champion, Jesus España of Spain; and one of the continent's top steeplechasers, Bob Bahri of France. "I'm not really race-fit right now, but I'm healthy," Cragg told journalists yesterday at a press conference. Cragg, the former NCAA star for the University of Arkansas who still makes his home in Fayetteville, Ark., was leading last summer's European Championships 5000m with three laps to go when he stepped off the track, hobbled by an Achilles injury which forced him to completely cease training. "It's in the past, so what can you do?" said Cragg. "I was able to rest early and get a good base in in the fall. If you can look at it positively, I got an early break after Sweden." He runs this morning's preliminaries at 11:15 in the beautiful National Indoor Arena here; the final is Saturday afternoon. Other opening round action today in the middle and long distance events include the men's and women's 800m, and the women's 1500m.