ALISTAIR CRAGG ends a 16-year barren spell in Irish men's athletics when he lines up for the 5,000m final in the Olympic Stadium tonight.

Hicham El Guerrouj banished his demons as he finally won the Olympic 1,500metres gold medal in Athens last night.

HICHAM El Guerrouj of Morocco ended eight years of agony in Athens last night as he won the Olympic Games men’s 1500 metres gold medal.

JUSTIN GATLIN ran the race of his life, barely holding off the fastest Olympic 100m field in history to win the gold in 9.85 seconds.

IRISH 110 metres record-holder Peter Coghlan finished third in last night’s IAAF Super Grand Prix meeting in Lausanne.

THERE was some consolation for Sonia O’Sullivan with the news yesterday that her fellow athletes had elected her to the IAAF Athletes Commission where she will join such notables as Heile Gebrselassie, Hicham El Guerrouj and Paula Radcliffe to represent athletes from around the world.

ELIUD KIPCHOGE of Kenya won a thrilling men’s 5,000 metres world final in Paris denying Hicham El Guerrouj a second title at the championships.

KELLI WHITE of the United States became the first woman since East Germany’s Katrin Krabbe in 1991 to clinch the world championship sprint double when she won the women’s 200 metres title in Paris last night.

PAUL BRIZZEL walked away from the Stade de France with a broad smile last night after he had posted his A standard for next year’s Olympics.

AFTER the euphoria that surrounded Gillian O’Sullivan’s silver medal performance on Sunday morning, it was all gloom for the three Irish athletes in action at the World Championships in Paris last evening.

In his first major Championship 1500m, Belfast's Gareth Turnbull came home in a disappointing 3:42.01 to finish tenth of eleven athletes in the first heat of the 1500m.

IT may be his first major assignment, but Cathal Lombard is approaching tomorrow’s 10,000m final at the world championships in Paris with a level of professionalism that has left nothing to chance.

GARETH TURNBULL may not have to run first round heats tomorrow in the men’s 1,500m, as entries for the event at the world championships in Paris have hit a new low.