Athletics

Mary Cullen's bronze medal performance in the Final of the 3000m at the European Indoor Championships in Turin provided a bright finish to the Championship for Irish Athletics.

Hammer thrower Eileen O'Keeffe and sprinter Paul Hession were the class acts for the Irish at the European Athletics Cups on opposite ends of the continent at the weekend.

Derval O'Rourke took her biggest stride forward yet this season when she finished second in the 100 metres hurdles in Prague last night.

Paul Hession's excellent early season form continued as he was runner-up to Jeremy Warner in Ostrava last night while setting a new Irish 300m record of 32.47 seconds

The Olympic Council of Ireland has launched its Beijing Bursary programme with a grant of €10,000 to Martin Fagan, the marathon runner who achieved Olympic qualification last weekend in Dubai.

Ireland’s walkers were in savage form at the European Cup Race Walking at Royal Lemington Spa yesterday. Both Robert Heffernan and Jamie Costin set new PB’s in their events, with the former’s time bettering his own national record, and Costin’s met the qualifying times for for the World championships and the Beijing Olympics.

Alistair Cragg broke Mark Carroll’s Irish 10,000m record and achieved an 'A' standard for the Beijing Olympic Games yesterday at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational in Stanford University in the US. Cragg ran a time of 27.39.55, which was seven seconds faster than Carroll’s previous record of 27.46.82, set at the same meet seven years ago.

Double Olympian Gillian O'Sullivan has announced her retirement from competitive athletics at the age of 30. The Kerry native race-walker, who has struggled with injuries and illness in recent years, has had a hugely impressive career. She is currently the world record holder in the 5000m race walk, a record she set in Santry in 2002 at the Irish National Championships and is also the current Irish record holder in the 3,000m, 5,000m and 10,000m walks and holds the 10k and 20k Irish road records.

Jones was the UK Athletics High Performance Director from 1997 to 2004 and eventually retired from UK Athletics in 2005 after 24 years. During his time with UK Athletics Jones was coach to 7 Olympic Teams and Head coach for the 2000 and 2004 Olympics. Before taking up his new post with Athletics Ireland he was strength and conditioning coach to UK athlete Paula Radcliffe.

A fantastic last lap saw Dubliner David Gillick retain his 400m European Indoors crown at Birmingham last weekend (March 3rd). His stunning victory was the highlight of a competition that saw several excellent performances from Irish athletes hoping to qualify for the Beijing Olympic Games next year.

The Kilbride runner, aged 22, is fast delivering on the potential she showed as a junior and is now poised to make a big breakthrough into the senior ranks- and she could be an Olympian of the future.