SONIA O’SULLIVAN misses the Woodies DIY National senior track and field championships at Morton Stadium at the weekend.

Brendan Mooney

KELLY HOLMES has pulled out of Saturday’s BUPA Cork City Sports at the Mardyke because of the Achilles tendon problem that forced her out of the European Cup the weekend before last.

MARK CHRISTIE qualified for both the European under-23 championships and the world student games with a career best performance in the 1,500m at the Solihull meet over the weekend and now the Mullingar athlete can’t wait for the BUPA Cork City Sports on Saturday.

DAVID GILLICK will have the A standard for the world championships in Helsinki as his target when he lines up for the 400m at the European Cup in Leiria, Portugal, on the weekend of June 18/19.

Brendan Mooney

CIARAN Ó LIONAIRD posted the qualifying standards for both the world youths championships in Marrakech and the European Youth Olympics, which had been his target, in one fell swoop when he won the junior 1,500m race in a sensational 3:50.86 at the Cardiff indoor international at the weekend.

GARY RYAN won the admiration of the fans at the BUPA Cork City Sports on Saturday and is now hoping he can get the nod from the OCI should he post the Olympic qualifying standard between now and the Athens Games.

SOME of Ireland’s Olympic hopefuls have been going through a rough patch in recent days.

HIGH jump sensation Adrian O’Dwyer, was jumping for Olympic qualification in Algiers last week but on Saturday he will be jumping for joy at The Mardyke in Cork where he will again treat fans to the type of performance that saw him clear 2.30m and claim his place in Athens.

Casey Vincent from Australia has been added to the line-up for the 400m at BUPA Cork City Sports on July 3 in place of Chris Brown from the Bahamas.

GARETH TURNBULL has achieved his ambition of posting the B standard for the world championships.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN finished 15th of 16 finishers in the 1,500m at the Grand Prix in Madrid on Sunday night, but it was a run that was totally out of context and there is no need to panic.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN admitted yesterday she is taking longer than anticipated to get back on track ahead of the world championships in Paris next month.

CURRENT British champion Shani Anderson, who won both the 100m and 200m at last year’s BUPA Cork City Sports, is set to return to defend to her titles on July 5.

SEVERAL leading US athletes are eyeing the BUPA Cork City Sports on July 5 in their lead up to the world championships in Paris.

A RECORD crowd is expected at the Mardyke this afternoon (2.00pm-5.00pm) to see if the queen of Irish athletics can run the fastest 3,000m ever in Ireland.