ROBERT HEFFERNAN is determined to reclaim his title and the national record at Cork City Sports on Saturday when the mixed walk, which will also feature world silver medallist Olive Loughnane, will be one of the star attractions.

PAUL HESSION will defend his Cork City Sports 200m title at the CIT on Saturday but is unlikely to double up at 100m.

DERVAL O’ROURKE, who has yet to win at Cork City Sports, again faces a huge assignment when she lines up alongside Olympic bronze medallist Priscilla Lopes-Schlep from Canada in the 100m hurdles at the CIT Track on Saturday.

KIM COLLINS will provide a formidable challenge for Paul Hession in the sprints when Cork City Sports relocates to the plush surroundings of the CIT Track in Bishopstown on Saturday week.

DERVAL O’ROURKE is set to share star billing with world silver medallist, Olive Loughnane, at Cork City Sports at the CIT Track in Bishopstown on July 3.

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

CORK City Sports fans could have the pleasure of seeing women’s hammer star Eileen O’Keeffe in action at this year’s event which takes place on July 3 at the CIT Track in Bishopstown.

OLYMPIC hammer thrower Eileen O’Keeffe could compete at the Cork City Sports with confirmation Ireland’s premier international track and field meeting will be held at the CIT Track in Bishopstown on July 3.

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.

DERVAL O’ROURKE has withdrawn from Saturday’s Cork City Sports because of a groin injury picked up at the European Team Championships in Slovakia two weeks ago.

ALAN O’BRIEN (Crusaders) was relatively unknown when he won the IMC 800m at Cork City Sports last year.

AMERICAN athletics chiefs are on the look-out for an Irish base for their Olympic team ahead of the London Olympics in 2012.

PAUL HESSION will get his new outdoor season under way tonight when he lines up for the 100m at the Primo Nebiolo Memorial Meeting which will be staged in Turin.

CAROLINA KLUFT has abandoned her hopes of competing at Cork City Sports on Saturday as a slump in form has sent the Olympic, world and European champion back to her training base in Sweden for some fine tuning.

FOR a number of years the Japanese federation sent small teams of athletes to Cork City Sports and that relationship will be renewed at The Mardyke on July 12 when the Far East will be represented by at least two of their Olympic hopefuls.

THE date for next year’s Cork City Sports has been put back to accommodate the US Olympic trials, the Russian championships and the Caribbean countries whose championships coincide with the US championships.

PAUL HESSION will be chasing Paul Brizzell’s national 200m record at The Mardyke on Saturday afternoon when some of the world’s best athletes will assemble for Cork City Sports.

BUPA Ireland has withdrawn as sponsors of the Cork City Sports following their withdrawal from the Irish health insurance market.

BUPA Cork City Sports has rocketed into up to third place on the European list of Permit Meetings and just below Grand Prix status, which is determined on budgets, attendances, appearance money and television coverage as well as performances on the track.

ALISTAIR CRAGG will arrive in Cork today geared for a battling performance in the 3,000m at tomorrow’s BUPA Cork City Sports at The Mardyke.

TWO of the fastest men on earth return to The Mardyke on Saturday for the BUPA Cork City Sports with confirmation yesterday that two of America’s top sprinters, Bernard Williams and Tyree Washington, are set to line up for the 100m and 200m, respectively.

DERVAL O’ROURKE will kick off her outdoor season at The Mardyke on Saturday, where she claims star billing at the BUPA Cork City Sports.

More than 200 athletes are set to gather in Cork for the 55th BUPA Ireland Cork City Sports this weekend. Athletes from 32 countries with compete in 20 events and some well-known names are in the line-up.

THE legendary Michael Johnson telephoned the organisers of the BUPA Cork City Sports during the week in a bid to get one of his proteges, Darold Williamson, into their July 1 showpiece at The Mardyke.

DERVAL O’ROURKE is all set to take her place in the line-up for the 100m hurdles at the BUPA Cork City Sports this afternoon relieved to be finally able to get her outdoor season under way after an injury scare.

BUPA Cork City Sports received another off-season accolade this week when last summer's edition was ranked sixth on the evaluation list of outdoor meetings for 2005, with the points total reaching a stunning 79,994 - only slightly behind the total for the second-placed meeting.

OLYMPIC long jump champion, Dwight Phillips, was among the early arrivals as the stars for tomorrow’s BUPA Cork City Sports at The Mardyke began to assemble yesterday.

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.

BERNARD WILLIAMS, silver medallist in the 200m at last year’s Olympics and member of the USA gold medal winning 4 x 100m relay team in Atlanta will line up in the 100m at the BUPA Cork City Sports on July 2.

Brendan Mooney

IF Geraldine Hendricken is ready to run, she will be at The Mardyke on July 2.

Brendan Mooney

DOUBLE Olympic champion Kelly Holmes will compete at the BUPA Cork City Sports on July 2.

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.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN will take her Olympic build-up to a new level when she lines up for the 1,500 metres at Gateshead on Sunday before returning to The Mardyke for the BUPA Cork City Sports the following Saturday and her final 5,000m race before Athens.

PAUL McKEE walked away from his seasonal debut in Cardiff at the weekend with mixed feelings after running a personal best for 100 metres and following up with a dismal run over 300m, the race he had targeted.

THE IAAF are trying to trace a Moroccan athlete who tested positive for a banned substance at Cork City Sports last July.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN will be looking to tomorrow’s 1500 metres at the BUPA Ireland Cork City Sports to measure her form following Tuesday night’s disappointing 3000m run in Lausanne, where she finished a remote ninth to runaway Russian Yelena Zadorozhnaya.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN will face no fewer than 10 Africans when she launches her track season at the IAAF Super Grand Prix meeting in Lausanne this evening and one of the 20 strong field, Renee Kalmer from Germany, will follow her home for the BUPA Ireland Cork City Sports on Saturday afternoon.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN did not feel cheated out of an Olympic gold medal when French border police discovered drugs, thought to be performance enhancing, in a car belonging to Gabriela Szabo, two weeks ago.

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