GARETH TURNBULL, Mary Cullen and Maria McCambridge will not contest Sunday’s European cross-country championships in Toro, Spain.

MARTIN FAGAN and Mary Cullen are named in the Irish senior teams for the European cross-country championships in Toro, near Madrid, on Sunday week.

Athletics Ireland today announced a 36-strong team for the European Cross Country Championships which take place on December 9 in Toro, Spain.

LAST summer Gary Murray was told by the renowned Munich sports injury specialist, Dr Hans Mueller, that his back was in such bad shape that he should not be running at all.

GARETH TURNBULL won’t be out of pocket as a result of the lengthy battle to clear his name after testing positive for a banned substance in 2005, the Irish Sports Council confirmed yesterday.

AFTER the glitter of the European indoor championships, the spotlight swings to Sligo Racecourse this weekend where teak-tough Clareman Seamus Power bids to reclaim the national inter-clubs cross-country title.

Golden boy David Gillick capped off what Irish team manager Patsy McGonagle described as "a crazy day" by becoming the first man to retain the European Indoor 400 metres title since Britain's Du'aine Ladejo did so in 1996.

Thomas Chamney and David McCarthy both qualified for the 800 metres semi-finals at the European Indoor Athletics Championships today in Birmingham to complete a very satisfactory first day for the Irish team.

SEAN KELLY has dismissed as a “fallacy” the notion that the recent upsurge in sports funding and facilities will mean that all Irish athletes will soon train full-time in this country.

JUST when he found himself resigned to skipping the indoor season altogether, European indoor 400m champion David Gillick finds himself back in the mix as favourite to retain his title in Birmingham this weekend.

EMULATING Madrid in 2005, where they won two gold medals, will be a tall order, but the Irish team travelling to Birmingham for the European Indoor Championships this weekend will still be expected to claim a pair of podium finishes.

Paul Hession was the outstanding performer at the Irish Indoor Athletics Championships in the Odyssey.

ALISTAIR CRAGG has his sights set firmly on the European Indoor Championships in Birmingham on March 2/3/4, when he will defend his 3,000m title.

ATHLETICS IRELAND could host the 2009 European cross-country championships.

SEAMUS POWER has conceded defeat in his battle to be fit for Sunday’s European cross-country championships near Milan and will be replaced by national inter-clubs champion Vinnie Mulvey on the Irish senior squad.

Gareth Turnbull will be concentrating on the indoor season after refusing to be selected for the Irish team to compete in next week's European Cross-Country Championships in Milan.

MARK CHRISTIE, winner of the national senior inter-counties title on Sunday in Dungarvan, has opted to compete in the Under-23 race at the European cross-country championships in Italy on Sunday week and Seamus Power, nine-time inter-counties champion, could be the man to replace him on the senior team.

Athletics Ireland has announced the Irish team to compete in the Spar European Cross Country Championships on December 10 in Legnano, Italy.

MARK CHRISTIE (Westmeath) claimed his first national senior title with victory at the inter-counties cross-country championships at St Augustine’s College, Dungarvan, yesterday.

SEAMUS POWER bids to win the National senior inter-counties cross-country title for a sensational 10th time at St Augustine’s College, Dungarvan, on Sunday.

IRISH athlete Gareth Turnbull was yesterday cleared of an alleged doping offence of elevated testosterone, after anti-doping experts admitted the reading may have been ‘induced by alcohol.’

BELFAST athlete Gareth Turnbull has been given permission to resume racing even though there is as yet no verdict following the doping charge against him.

THE forced withdrawal of Alistair Cragg has been a huge blow to Ireland’s medal hopes at the European cross-country championships in Tilburg, but the men’s team, led by national champion Gary Murray, are ready to get on with the job they came here to do.

Alastair Cragg will lead the Irish team in the European Cross Country Championships scheduled for Tilburg in Holland on December 11.

MARK CARROLL showed he is pumped up for tomorrow’s ING New York City Marathon by launching a stinging attack on Irish Sports Council chairman John Treacy on the eve of the race.

Brendan O’Brien

SONIA O’SULLIVAN’S Sports Council grant has been reinstated but the International Carding Scheme Appeals Committee have virtually retired a whole generation of Irish athletics by refusing their appeals, according to a leading athletics figure.

1500m runner Gareth Turnbull's chances of making the Athens Olympic Games seem to be dashed after a poor run at the North Down Games in Bangor.

The Olympic Council of Ireland last night sensationally extended the Athens qualification deadline for Irish track and field athletes to 5pm on July 20, in the wake of Athletics Ireland's case pleaded on behalf of those close to the A standard.

ATHLETES and swimmers chasing Olympic qualifying standards were given a new lease of life last night when the Olympic Council of Ireland extended the deadline for A standard qualification to July 20 but warned that there will be no further extension.

THE Olympic Council of Ireland appear certain to stand firm on their weekend deadline for Olympic qualification.

ROBERT HEFFERNAN posted the second fastest time of his career for the 20k walk at the Grand Prix of Race Walking in La Coruna yesterday when he finished fifth in 1:20:55 to highlight his return to form in advance of the Olympics.

MARK CARROLL yesterday appealed to the Olympic Council of Ireland to extend the June 30 date for Olympics qualification and give those behind schedule through no fault of their own a chance to make the team for Athens.

WITH June 30 the cut off point for Olympic qualification, most athletes have their programmes in place for Athens but the High Performance Director, Elaine Fitzgerald, admitted that time is not on their side.

SEAMUS POWER bids for a sensational ninth consecutive national inter-counties cross-country title on Sunday, and his training partner and arch rival, Peter Matthews, admits it will take a super human performance to dethrone the Clareman.

KEITH KELLY may be in flying form right now, and Seamus Power and Peter Matthews are back on track, but Ireland will have to wait for news of Alastair Cragg’s plans before assessing the medal hopes in the men’s race at next month’s European cross-country championships in Edinburgh.

GILLIAN O’SULLIVAN’S silver medal in the 20k walk at the world championships in Paris and Paul Hession’s silver medal in the sprints at the World Student Games in Korea over the past week means Ireland has claimed a medal from all the track and field championships this year.

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.

KAREN SHINKINS, whose season turned around in recent weeks, took another major step back to form yesterday when she made it through to this evening’s semi-finals of the women’s 400.

Ireland’s Gareth Turnbull has reached the semi-finals of the 1,500m of the World Athletics Championship.

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.