Mary Cullen is planning to skip the indoor season in a bid to win a medal at the European Track and Field Championships in Zurich this summer.

There was a mix of joy, drama and heartbreak for the Irish athletes in action on the opening day of the European track and field championships in Helsinki yesterday.

Jessie Barr and her brother Tom will have an eye on Olympic qualification when they line up for their respective first round heats of the 400m hurdles at the European track and field championships in Helsinki today.

Irish record holders Deirdre Ryan and Derval O’Rourke will not compete in the European Track and Field Championships in Helsinki at the end of the month.

This weekend's World Indoor Track and Field Championships in Istanbul are surely going to whet the appetite in terms of what lies ahead for the rest of the year.

IRELAND’S Martin Fagan will go head-to-head with Great Britain’s Mo Farah in the SPAR European cross-country championships at the Santry Demesne on December 13.

A SUSPECTED case of food poisoning cost Ireland dearly at the SPAR European cross-country championships at San Giorgio su Legnano, Italy, yesterday.

MARY CULLEN is ready to challenge for a medal in the senior women’s race at the SPAR European cross-country championships at San Giorgio su Legnana, near Milan, tomorrow but would be happy with a place in the top five or six.

ALISTAIR CRAGG wants to spearhead the Irish challenge at next month’s European cross-country championships and the European indoor championships in Birmingham in early March when he will defend his 3,000m title — his big priority.

DAVID GILLICK turned in one of the most exciting performances of his life at the European Track and Field Championships in Gothenburg yesterday and was rewarded with a prime lane for this evening’s 400m semi-finals.

SERGIY LEBID stole the show with a devastating last lap surge to claim his fifth successive title - and his sixth in all - at the SPAR European cross-country championships in Tilburg, overcoming the challenge of Spain’s Alberto Garcia, the European 5,000m champion who only returned from a two-year ban for a positive drugs test last March.

HAS Irish athletics taken a dramatic turn for the better? That was the question on everyone's mind - if not lips - in the Spanish capital yesterday as the ramifications of Saturday's golden track double begin to sink in.

THERE is no physical reason why Sonia O’Sullivan should not go to next year’s Olympic Games in Athens as a medal contender according to the world’s leading expert in long term player/athlete development.