Joanne Cuddihy will compete in the Olympic 400 metres, having become the 17th Irish track and field athlete to qualify for London 2012.

European cross-country champion Fionnuala Britton has secured her second Olympic 'A' standard for London 2012 by beating the 10,000m mark by 16 seconds.

Ireland’s Olympic selectors have been given a marathon headache, as a fourth athlete has made the qualifying mark for the women’s marathon at London 2012.

Maria McCambridge has become the 15th athlete to qualify for the Irish Track and Field team for this year’s Olympic Games in London.

Tori Pena has become the first Irish pole vaulter in athletics history to qualify for an Olympic Games.

ALREADY qualified for the 20k walk at next year’s Olympic Games, Robert Heffernan can fight for a medal on two fronts after posting his qualifying standard for the 50k walk at Naumburg.

EUROPE’S top cross-country runner, Fionnuala Britton will be one of the favourites for the gold medal when she leads the Irish women’s team into next month’s European cross-country championships in Slovenia.

ROBERT HEFFERNAN got his preparations for London 2012 back on track at the IAAF Racewalking Challenge Final in La Coruna on Saturday, breaking his own national record for the 10k walk when finishing sixth behind the world and Olympic champion, Valeriy Borchin, in 39:19.

CIARAN Ó LIONAIRD can’t wait to get his preparations for next year’s Olympic Games underway and, after his Daegu odyssey, he can plan for the future with world-class funding from the Irish Sports Council.

REGARDLESS of the outcome of today’s 1,500m final at the World Championships in Daegu, Ciarán Ó Lionaird’s coach is convinced the 23 year-old Cork man has huge medal potential.

Ireland enjoyed a highly successful day six of the World Championships in Daegu as Deirdre Ryan, Alistair Cragg and Ciaran O’Lionaird all qualified for their respective finals.

CIARAN Ó LIONAIRD took another giant step forward in his fragmented athletics career yesterday when he finished sixth in his semi-final of the men’s 1,500m at the world championships in Daegu to qualify for tomorrow’s final.

Ireland enjoyed a highly successful day six of the World Championships in Daegu as Deirdre Ryan, Alistair Cragg and Ciaran O’Lionaird all qualified for their respective finals.

IRELAND’S hopes of a medal at the world championships in Daegu suffered a major blow yesterday when Olive Loughnane failed to replicate her silver medal performance in Berlin two years ago in the women’s 20k walk.

Ireland’s Olive Loughnane, the silver medallist in Berlin, had to settle for 16th this time in one hour 34.02 seconds in the women’s 20 kilometres walk at the World Championships in Daegu today.

ALISTAIR CRAGG will join Ciarán Ó Lionaird on tomorrow’s programme in the heats of the 5,000m while Deirdre Ryan will compete in the qualifying rounds of the high jump.

Derval O'Rourke continued her build-up for the World Championships by winning her ninth national title at Santry's Morton Stadium today.

Paul Hession ran his fastest time of the year at today's Woodie's DIY National Senior Track & Field Championships, and in doing so secured his place at the 2012 Olympics.

CIARÁN Ó LIONÁIRD (Leevale), fresh from his sensational 1,500m run in Oordegem, Belgium, will contest the 800m at this weekend’s Woodies DIY national senior championships at Morton Stadium, Santry.

DERVAL O’ROURKE’S performance in Chaux du Fonds, Switzerland, on Sunday is all the more impressive considering she is right in the middle of a hard block of training, according to her coach, Sean Cahill.

HIS sensational victory in last Saturday’s South Regional Cross-Country Championships in Hoover, Alabama will send Corkman Ciarán Ó Lionáird into Monday’s NCAAs among the medal favourites.

Derval O’Rourke claimed Ireland’s first medal of the European Championships tonight but there was not quite such good news in the final of the men’s 5,000m, as Alistair Cragg, who had led the race with seven laps to go, dropped out before the finish.

Derval O'Rourke is through to the final of the women's 100m hurdles at the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona tonight.

ROBERT HEFFERNAN is a warrior and a fighter and he will win a medal at the Olympic Games in London 2012, according to his coach, Ivonne Cassin.

WHEN Steven Colvert, a relative newcomer to the sport of athletics, develops the strength to see the race out, he is going to be a formidable force in 200m running.

Alistair Cragg had a nervous wait before his qualification for Saturday's 5000m final at the European Athletics Championships was confirmed.

DAVID McCARTHY and Ailís McSweeney qualified for the semi-finals of their respective 800m and 100m events on an exciting, and controversial, morning for Irish athletes at the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona.

AS about 1,400 of Europe’s finest athletes explode into action this morning in Barcelona’s big European Championships, the image in my mind’s eye is not of any of the 30-strong Irish team involved.

NEVER before has an Irish team carried so many medal hopes intoa major athletics championship – hopes that were reinforced by an air of optimism as the squad of 33 began to assemble at their base in Barcelona yesterday for the European championships.

WITH the majority of the Irish athletes due to fly into Barcelona today, Paul Hession has opted to remain at the training camp in Murcia until Monday, the day before the European Championships get under way.

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.

UNTIL last weekend, Robert Heffernan held every race walking record up to 50k. But along came his old training partner, Jamie Costin, who smashed his 3,000m time before his home fans at Cork City Sports.

PAUL HESSION will open what he has described as his “big year” in an unusual setting for a sprinter when he lines up for the 100m at the Great City Games on a specially laid track on the streets of Manchester’s Deansgate on Sunday week.

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

MARK KENNEALLY had the honour of leading the Irish challenge home when he finished eighth in the senior men’s race at the SPAR European Cross-Country Championships at Santry Demesne, as the other more established members of the team flopped.

Ireland's Mark Kenneally put in the performance of his life to take eighth in the men’s senior race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Santry Park, Dublin.

ALISTAIR CRAGG has made no secret of the fact that he fancies his chances in tomorrow’s SPAR European cross-country championships at Santry Demesne and his arrival yesterday added to the air of excitement that surrounds the Irish camp, situated just a stone’s throw from what is a resplendent course.

WHEN the President of Athletics Ireland, Liam Hennessy, launched the bid to bring the SPAR European cross-country championships to Dublin in Italy in 2006, Mo Farah was a surprise winner of the senior men’s title.

ANDREW LEDWITH wants to reproduce the form he showed when winning the national inter-counties cross-country title in Kilbeggan three weeks ago when he lines up for the SPAR European championships at Santry.

WITH individual and team medals within reach, Ireland’s cross-country team manager, Anne Keenan-Buckley, made no effort to hide her excitement when she introduced some of her athletes at Santry yesterday ahead of Sunday’s SPAR European cross-country championships.

ALISTAIR CRAGG is selected to run for Ireland in the SPAR European cross-country championships in Santry on December 13.

Alistair Cragg has been confirmed by Athletics Ireland as part of the Irish team for the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Santry Park next month.

ALISTAIR CRAGG will get his place on the Irish senior men’s team for the SPAR European cross-country championships if he proves his fitness in tomorrow’s 5k road race in San Jose.