Ciarán Ó Lionaird hopes to get Olympic year off to a flying start at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston on Saturday.

David McCarthy came close to breaking the US collegiate record for the mile with victory in the Boston University Terrier Invite Meet on Saturday (3:55.75).

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.

RUAIRI FINNEGAN (Letterkenny AC), a finalist at the world youths championships a couple of weeks ago, claimed the gold medal in the 1,500m at the European Youth Olympics in Trabzon, Turkey, yesterday.

FOLLOWING medal successes at the world youth and European U23 championships, Ciara Mageean (City of Lisburn) will be one of the favourites at the women’s European junior 1,500m final in Tallinn on Thursday morning.

BRIAN GREGAN took his career to anew level with asilver medal in the men’s 400m at the European U23 championships with a new personal best time of 46.12 secs in Ostrava on Saturday.

MEGAN KIELY (Ferrybank AC) qualified for the semi-finals of the women’s 400m hurdles when she finished fifth in her first-round heat at the World Youth Championships in Lille yesterday.

OLIVE LOUGHNANE (Loughrea AC) had to settle for the silver medal in the 20km event at yesterday’s Athletics Ireland International Grand Prix of Race Walking in the Phoenix Park.

THE men’s 800m could provide the highlight of this weekend’s IUAA (Inter-Varsities) championships hosted by Queen’s University Belfast where Darren McBrearty (DCU) renews rivalry with Niall Tuohy (UL).

IRISH team manager Patsy McGonagle admits that Athletics Ireland chiefs “need to take a hard look at ourselves” after the national team’s disappointing performance at the European Indoor Championships in Paris.

DERVAL O’ROURKE will recover from her fourth place at the European Indoor Championships, according to her coach Sean Cahill.

Ireland's Ailis McSweeney and Darren McBrearty were run out of contention in their respective semi-finals at the European Indoor Championships in Paris.

JUST when Irish spirits needed a lift at the European championships in Paris yesterday, young Darren McBrearty stepped up with one of the most courageous performances of the afternoon to claim his place in today’s semi-finals of the men’s 800m.

Ireland's 400 metres hopefuls, Brian Gregan and Marian Heffernan, both had disappointing runs on the opening day of action in the European Indoor Championships.

IN anticipation of a long day at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, where the European athletics championships get under way this morning, a room has been booked for Derval O’Rourke at a nearby hotel.

ROBERT HEFFERNAN will head for his training camp in South Africa today in buoyant mood after a solid performance at the Woodies DIY Irish indoor championships in the Odyssey Arena where he retained his 5k walk title in 19:09.56.

Mary Cullen broke away from the field in the final 400 metres to win gold in the 1500 metres final at the Woodie's DIY Irish Indoor Championships in Belfast.

The 2011 Woodie's DIY Irish Indoor Championships got underway at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast today. The highlight was the women's 3,000 metres walk which was won by Laura Reynolds from Mohill AC.

ROBERT HEFFERNAN set the track ablaze in the Odyssey Arena a few years ago when he set a new Irish record for the 5,000m walk at 18mins 51secs and if he can reproduce his training form at the Woodies DIY Irish Indoor Athletics Championships in Belfast tonight, fans can expect fireworks.

DERVAL O’ROURKE moved a step closer to her target — the European championships in Paris in a month’s time — when she finished third in the 60m hurdles in 8.03 secs at last night’s international indoor meeting in Lievin.

WITH Ciarán Ó Lionáird committed to competing and David McCarthy set to return from Providence, the task of putting together a medal winning under-23 team for the European cross-country championships should be completed on Sunday at the Woodies DIY national inter-county cross-country championships at Gransha Park, Derry.

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.

DAVID McCARTHY (Le Cheile) posted his qualifying standard for the European Championships when he won the 800m in 1:48.18 at the Irish Milers’ Club races held in conjunction with the schools championships in Tullamore on Saturday.

JASON SMYTH yesterday became the first Irish Paralympic athlete to qualify for a major able-bodied championship.