“It’s great news and something for the Irish athletes to look forward to,” said O’Sullivan on the announcement of the winning Irish bid at a European Athletics Council meeting in Budapest yesterday.

“A plan needs to be put in place where they decide where the medals are going to come from and then load up there,” the Cork running legend continued.

“It’s a prestigious event and they don’t want to spread the betting too thin.”

The European Cross Country Championships has a six-race programme – U20, U23 and senior races for men and women. And O’Sullivan feels the main priority should be for athletes to focus on the team.

The next European cross takes place this December in Tilburg on December 9 where rising star Sarah Healy (Blackrock) is an individual medal contender in the U20 women’s race and should lead a strong team challenge.

She will still be U20 by the time Dublin rolls around and there should be a strong team in that category also.

“They hopefully will get a bit of practice in for Dublin,” said O’Sullivan whose daughter, Sophie, is looking for selection this year in the U20 race and will still be in that age group come 2020. O’Sullivan, a two-time world cross country champion, was fourth in the Europeans in 2003 where she combined with the team to win silver.

There is a rich history of female success at the Europeans with Catherina McKiernan winning the inaugural event in Durham in 1994 and Fionnuala McCormack winning back to back titles in 2011 and 2012. McCormack had double joy in 2012 leading her teammates to win historic team gold.

McCormack won’t run the championships this year as she has recently given birth but this could provide a perfect fillet for the 34-year-old to get back into competitive action.

The European Cross Country Championships will take place at the purpose-built cross country course National Sports Campus on Sunday 13th December 2020. Athletics Ireland bid for this championship was supported by Fingal County Council, Sport Ireland and RTÉ.

The national cross country championships take place at the end of this month on the same course with selection up for grabs at this year’s event in the Netherlands.