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.

David Gillick cruised impressively into the European Championship 400 metre final at Barcelona’s Olympic Stadium this evening.

Ireland's David Gillick ran a season's best of 44.79 seconds at Barcelona's Olympic Stadium to qualify for the 400m final at the European Athletics Championships.

Sprinter Ailis McSweeney has qualified for tomorrow's Women's 100m semi-finals on day two of the European championships in Barcelona.

Olive Loughnane has withdrawn midway through the 20km walk at the European Championships in Barcelona this morning.

David Gillick got his bid for the European 400 metres title off to a solid start in Barcelona yesterday.

DAVID GILLICK put down a marker when he cruised up the home straight to win yesterday’s first round heat of the men’s 400m at the Olympic Stadium in 45.84 secs.

OLIVE LOUGHNANE gets the programme under way in the women’s 20k walk at 7.05am (Irish time) when she faces a field of just 23 in her quest to add a European Championship medal to her world championship medal and only Sonia O’Sullivan and Eamonn Coghlan have done that in outdoor competition before.

David Gillick, who has high hopes of a podium finish in Barcelona, comfortably negotiated the opening round of the 400 metres at the European Athletics Championships this morning.

COACH Nick Dakin is looking for a winning performance from David Gillick in this morning’s first-round heats of the 400m at the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona to ensure a good lane draw for the semi-finals.

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.

THOMAS CHAMNEY leaves for Barcelona today, on the last leg of a carefully planned mission that should eventually take him to the final of the 1,500m at the European Championships in two weeks’ time.

Athletics Ireland has announced a 30-strong team for the 20th European Athletics Championships in Barcelona from July 27 to August 1.

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.

Team manager Patsy McGonagle hailed the efforts of Ireland's top track and field stars as they finished a very credible eighth in the European Team Championships 1st League event in Budapest.

THOMAS CHAMNEY was rewarded for a last minute dash from Heusden-Zolder to Dublin to compete in the Woodies DIY National Championships yesterday when he was named on the Irish team for Beijing.

PAUL HESSION ran the fastest ever 200m — unfortunately wind-assisted — by an Irishman when finishing third at last night’s international athletics meeting in Thessalonika.

HOPES of having an Irish men’s 4x400m relay team at this year’s Olympics suffered a blow yesterday with the cancellation of the relay events at tomorrow’s meet in Salamanca, Spain.

ROBERT HEFFERNAN and Olive Loughnane will compete in the Gran Permio de La Coruna in Spain at the weekend - both with Beijing on their minds.

IRISH 4x400m relay teams begin their quests for Olympic qualification next month.

THE controversy surrounding the IRFU’s decision to dispense with the national anthem and flag goes further than the stated effort to accommodate players from the North.

IRELAND has two athletes at the top of the European rankings after an exciting weekend that saw Paul Hession (Athenry) run the fastest 200m by a European this year at the Woodies DIY national track and field championships at Morton Stadium and Alistair Cragg post the fastest 5,000m by a European at a meet in Brasschaat, Belgium.

David Campbell claimed an historic double at the Woodie's DIY National Senior Track & Field Championships in Santry by becoming the first man to win both the 800m and 1500m titles since Eamonn Coghlan achieved the feat in 1981.

THE Oireachtas report citing widescale collusion between British state forces and loyalist murderers should not only compel our Government leaders to pursue the British state through the European courts in order to get it to reveal its murky past — they should also demand the withdrawal of the decorations given by Queen Elizabeth to the RUC and the UDR.

IT is hardly surprising that Finance Minister Brian Cowen is not keen ‘to interfere’ in the housing market.

I DEPLORE the unethical behaviour of our Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, while serving as our Minister for Finance.

I FIND it ironic that on the centenary of Michael Davitt’s death, the average price of a home in Dublin is set to reach €400,000.

I THINK there’s a large hole in Gordon Kennedy’s argument (Irish Examiner letters, May 22) that an IRA hunger striker was not a criminal just because he got 30,000 votes in an election.

THE opinions put forward by Tom Carew (Irish Examiner letters, May 11) about the 1981 hunger strikers were not only offensive and disrespectful, they were also littered with that tiresome kind of neo-unionism that is so prevalent in our contemporary print media.

AS a greyhound owner, I was sickened to learn recently that a re-homing charity may be brought to bankruptcy because the Irish Greyhound Board refuses to help with its funding.

AS a greyhound owner, I was sickened to learn recently that a re-homing charity may be brought to bankruptcy because the Irish Greyhound Board refuses to help with its funding.

I FIND it amazing that senior ministers still refuse to accept the reality that is rip-off Ireland — although if I was earning over E100,000 per year, plus expenses, maybe I wouldn’t see a problem either.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN misses the Woodies DIY National senior track and field championships at Morton Stadium at the weekend.

I WAS sickened to read the description and view the photographs of the cruel slaughter of thousands of pigs on a Waterford farm recently.

Brendan Mooney

WAS amazed and angered to read Junior Minister Noel Ahern’s lame defence of the so-called affordable housing scheme.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN has been travelling a familiar path along the Olympic route and this weekend could see her repeat her Sydney 2000 strategy should she double up over 800m and 1,500m at the Woodies DIY National Championships at Morton Stadium.

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell says Sinn Féin has dishonoured the Irish flag.