Defending national champion Sean Hehir believes tomorrow’s SSE Airticity Dublin Marathon showcases the capital at its best where record numbers of just under 20,000 will be led out by a strong East African representation.

Sean Hehir and Pauline Curley stole the headlines winning the national titles at the SSE Airtricity Dublin marathon as Alemu Gemechu and Nataliya Lehonkova took overall glory ahead of a record entry of more than 15,000.

Eoin Callaghan goes into Monday’s record entry Dublin marathon on the cusp of realising a dream.

John Coghlan held off London 2012 Olympic marathoner Mark Kenneally to take the St. Patrick’s festival 5k road race in Dublin city centre yesterday, a race organised by his father Eamonn Coghlan.

A fifth victory in a row by Sergiu Ciobanu of Clonliffe Harriers in the men’s race in and a course record winning time of 54:20 by Maria McCambridge of Dundrum South Dublin Athletic Club were the highlight performances at yesterday’s annual Ballycotton 10 mile in East Cork — the 38th running of this Irish road classic.

Fionnuala Britton will earn her 31st international cap at next month’s European cross country championships in Bulgaria.

Athletics: Fionnuala Britton romped to her fifth GloHealth Inter-Counties Cross-Country Championships title in Dundalk yesterday while Paul Pollock defended his crown in a thrilling three-way sprint finish.

Athletics: Fionnuala Britton was first woman across the line in the Autumn Cross-Country open 8km race at the Phoenix Park yesterday.

It was a case of déjà vu at the Cork Marathon yesterday with Poland’s Bartosz Mazerski denying Gary O’Hanlon’s brave attempt for a third marathon victory in 15 days in a sprint finish down St Patrick’s Street, while Pauline Curley smashed her course record from last year when coming home in 2:43:37.

A trickle of blood from the occasional stumble, lots of dribbling sweat, but no sign of tears as the fitter citizens of Cork and Dublin took to the streets to give each other’s city marathon a run for its money.

Twins featured strongly at yesterday’s Woodie’s DIY National Junior & Under 23 Track & Field Championships in Tullamore, with the Monaghans and Nevilles sharing four medals between them.

WORLD youth racewalking champion Kate Veale (West Waterford), finished third in the junior women’s race at the prestigious McCain UK Cross Challenge in Bristol over the weekend.

THE winners of the senior men’s and senior women’s titles at Saturday’s Woodies DIY national inter-clubs cross-country championships at Santry Demesne are not interested in going to the world cross-country championships in Punta Unbria, Spain, on March 20.

THOMAS CHAMNEY leaves for Barcelona today, on the last leg of a carefully planned mission that should eventually take him to the final of the 1,500m at the European Championships in two weeks’ time.

ROBERT Heffernan put weeks of frustration behind him when he retained his 10,000m walk title at the Woodies DIY National track and field championships at Morton Stadium yesterday where he beat his Olympic team mate, Jamie Costin, who claimed his 3,000m record in Cork a week earlier and, to cap it all, picked up the Athlete of the Meet Award and the €1,000 that went with it.

Hurdling star Derval O'Rourke warmed up for her Barcelona bid by securing her eighth national title in the 100m hurdles on the final day of the Woodie's DIY National Senior Track & Field Championships in Santry.

OVER 3,000 runners will go to the starting line for tomorrow’s “Ballycotton 10”, Ireland’s most enduring and successful road race.

NEWLY-CROWNED national senior cross-country champion, Mark Kenneally (Clonliffe Harriers), is among the entries for the phenomenon that is the Ballycotton 10 road race.

DERVAL O’ROURKE is out of next weekend’s World Indoor Championships in Doha, Qatar with a hamstring injury.

NINETEEN-YEAR-OLD Ethiopian runner Feyisa Lilesa finished within five seconds of the course record when winning the Lifestyle Sports adidas Dublin Marathon on his debut over the distance.

FERRYBANK’s Ann O’Shea was in record-breaking form at the Woodie’s DIY Juvenile Indoor championships in Nenagh at the weekend.

THE expression on his face as he powered his way up the home straight said it all as Drogheda athlete, Keith Kelly, buried 10 years of frustration at Santry Park yesterday by claiming the National senior cross-country title for the first time at the age of 31.

A LITTLE over 20 minutes after Constantina Tomescu won the Olympic Women’s Marathon, Pauline Curley jogged into Beijing’s National Stadium to begin her own victory lap.

ROBERT HEFFERNAN flew into Cork Airport yesterday on the last leg of his return flight from South Africa and the Corkman was flying so high after the last 10 days of his 22-day training camp at altitude that he could have done it without a plane.

VINNY MULVEY (Raheny Shamrock AC) raced to a solo and very satisfying victory in yesterday’s Ballycotton ‘10’ and then confirmed what more than 3,000 entrants proclaimed that this is the best 10-miler in these islands.

Ireland’s participation in this year’s World Indoor Championships is over as James Nolan failed to progress from his heat in the 1500-metres this evening in Valencia.

VINNY MULVEY (Raheny Shamrock), the winner two years ago when he also won the national senior cross-country title, will go to the line as the favourite when the phenomenon that is the “Ballycotton 10” gets under way on Sunday.

SUZANNE HUET (Dundrum/South Dublin) achieved her qualifying standard for the European junior championships when she won the 5,000m in 16:52.67 at yesterday’s national junior and under-23 championships in Tullamore.

David Campbell claimed an historic double at the Woodie's DIY National Senior Track & Field Championships in Santry by becoming the first man to win both the 800m and 1500m titles since Eamonn Coghlan achieved the feat in 1981.

Athletics Ireland have announced their team for the upcoming European Junior Championships in Holland.

AFTER a weekend that has given much promise for the rest of the season, Derval O’Rourke will be back among the best 100m hurdlers in the world at the Grand Prix 1 meeting in Lausanne tonight.

A record entry of over 2,300 runners is to take part in Sunday’s adidas Irish Runner Challenge – the first of the series in the Phoenix Park.

Over 40,000 women took to the sun-laden streets of Dublin today some in search of glory and others for a hard-earned buck for their favourite charity.

VINNY MULVEY of Raheny Shamrocks raced to a comprehensive winning debut in the Ballycotton 10 yesterday as Ireland’s most popular road race entered a new dimension - with a record field of more than 3,000.

EVERYONE was a winner yesterday as Limerick took to the roads in the Irish Examiner Limerick Women’s Mini Marathon.

BRENDAN O’NEILL (St. Michael’s, Dublin), Mairead Murphy (Mercy, Waterford) and Laura Reynolds (Marian, Mohill) all set new records at the KitKat Tailteann Irish Schools interpros at Tullamore on Saturday when a number of athletes bound for the European Youth Olympic Festival got the perfect send-off.

EUROPEAN gold medallist Alistair Cragg is considering an audacious attempt at the 4km and 12km titles on successive days at the World Cross-Country Championships in Saint-Etienne/Saint-Galmier next weekend.

There were some top quality performances at the National Indoor Championships in Nenagh today with sprinters in particular, catching the eye.

EMMET DUNLEAVY (Sligo AC) won the men’s Intermediate National title over 10,000m at Tinryland, Carlow yesterday in 29.25.

Brendan Mooney

THE cross-country season may be just getting into full swing but Mark Christie, who led Ireland’s junior team to the silver medals at the European cross-country championships on Sunday, is already thinking of summer and the track season.

THE fact that AAI won’t be sending short course teams to the world cross-country championships in Brussels next month may have taken some of the gloss of yesterday’s championships at ALSAA, near Dublin Airport, but the keenness of the competition was reflected in sprint finishes to both the men’s and women’s races.