Antrim International Cross Country: Kate Avery added to field

Kate Avery (centre) won Saturday's Edinburgh event ahead of Fionnuala McCormack (left) and Gemma Steel

In-form Briton Kate Avery is the latest addition to the women's field for Saturday's Antrim International Cross Country meeting.

The Englishwoman, 24, beat Ireland's Fionnuala McCormack to win the women's event in Edinburgh last weekend.

Avery also took silver ahead of the fourth-placed Irishwoman at last month's European Championships.

The Antrim field will include the two most recent winners, Birtukan Fente Alemu and Mimi Belete.

Ethiopian Alemu won the Greenmount event last year with Belete, who is Ethiopian-born but competes for Bahrain, triumphing in the Northern Ireland event in 2014.

The two Ethiopian natives will also have to contend with Belgian Louise Carton who won the Under-23 title at the recent European tests in Hyeres.

Olympic Games-bound Kerry O'Flaherty will lead the Northern Ireland women's challenge in Saturday's meeting.

O'Flaherty, 34, secured her Olympic steeplechase berth with a 9:42.51 clocking in Letterkenny last summer and produced a strong run in Edinburgh on Saturday when she helped an Ireland quartet finish third in a 4x1000m cross country relay event.

The Newcastle woman will lead a Northern Ireland team which also includes European Under-23 championships competitor Emma Mitchell and City of Derry's Catherine Whoriskey.