Hession produced the best performance among the competitiors from eight nations contesting Group A of the Second League in the Estonian captial, Tallinn.
O’Keeffe was vastly superior to her opponents when winning in the First League in the Portuguese city of Leiria.
O’Keeffe’s throw of 69.59 metres was particularly welcome since she proved the lone individual winner on the Irish team.
Having finished sixth in the World Championships last year, the Kilkenny woman is a genuine medal challenger in Beijing and yesterday’s vicotry will have greatly boosted her confidence; she won by three metres from the Spaniard Berta Castells.
Derval O’Rourke was up against it in the 100-metre hurdles, Spain’s Josephine Onyia winning in 12.73 seconds and the Cork-woman posting her slowest time of the season when third in 13.12.
Hession had his moment of glory on Saturday, winning the 100 metres with consummate ease in a time of 10.30 seconds.
“He looked extremely strong and I think he is ready to run a massive time for 200 metres,” said team manager Patsy McGonagle.
Paul McKee stepped into David Gillick’s shoes and duly ran his opponents ragged to win the 400 metres in 46.68. And yesterday Gillick came out to hone his speed when running a personal best 21.19 for fifth over 200 mteres.
McKee and Gillick then linked up with Brian Doyle and Gordon Kennedy to win the 1,600-metre relay in 3:04.43, more than four seconds clear of Denmark.
