Last week the World Junior Athletics Championships took place in Oregon’s Hayward Field.

It will be a tough first day of competition for the five Irish athletes competing at the world indoor championships in Poland today but they all have their personal goals to keep them on track.

Haile Gebrselassie’s agent insists the Ethiopian legend will not retire, despite dropping out of his second marathon in succession and seeing his world record smashed.

Kenya’s Patrick Makau today smashed the world record as he successfully defended his Berlin marathon title, with former record holder Haile Gebrselassie dramatically dropping out of the race.

Kenyan Olympic marathon champion Sammy Wanjiru died in a fall from a balcony after a domestic dispute involving his wife and another woman, police said today.

Haile Gebrselassie has pulled out of Sunday’s Tokyo Marathon due to a knee injury.

Haile Gebrselassie today confirmed he has reversed his decision to quit athletics.

Two-time champion Martin Lel has been forced to pull out of this weekend’s Great North Run due to injury.

Haile Gebrselassie's world 30-kilometres road-running record of one hour 27 minutes 49 seconds has been ratified by the IAAF.

Olympic champion Sammy Wanjiru kept his nerve to win the men’s Flora London Marathon ahead of Beijing bronze-medallist Tsegay Kebede.

FORMER Irish rugby international Denis Hickie suffered many injuries throughout his illustrious career but never let his asthma hold him back.

Haile Gebrselassie smashed the world record he set in last year’s Berlin Marathon to retain his title with an historic time of two hours three minutes and 59 seconds.

BEIJING started its most drastic pollution-control plan yesterday, restricting car use and limiting factory emissions in a last push to clear smog-choked skies for the August Olympics.

Nick Davies, communications director for the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), has moved to allay fears that pollution may cause further athletes to withdraw from this year’s Beijing Olympics – a day after world record holder Haile Gebrselassie decided not to run the marathon.

Stung by criticism of their pollution-ridden atmosphere, Beijing’s Olympic officials today promised the air would be clean in time for this summer’s games.

MARTIN FAGAN was rewarded for Friday’s performance in Dubai where he achieved the qualifying standard for the Olympic marathon when the Olympic Council of Ireland launched its Beijing Bursary programme — awarding a grant of €10,000 to the 24-year-old Mullingar Harrier.

World road-running championships silver medallist Patrick Makau Musyoki will switch his attention to cross-country for next month’s Belfast International.

ROBERT Heffernan got his build up to next year’s Olympic Games off to a flying start in Barcelona yesterday when he finished sixth in a 10k event that featured all but one of the world’s top 10 racewalkers.

Haile Gebrselassie shattered the world record when winning this morning’s Real Berlin Marathon.

Sammy Wanjiru has had his world half-marathon time of 58 minutes 33 seconds set in The Hague on March 17 confirmed as a world record.

Olympic 10,000m bronze medallist Zersenay Tadesse will head the African challenge for top honours in this month’s BUPA Great Manchester Run.

Felix Limo denied fellow Kenyan Martin Lel a second successive Flora London Marathon title in a thrilling sprint finish.

Ethiopian distance star Haile Gebrselassie today shattered the world half-marathon record by 21 seconds.

World junior cross-country champion Gelete Burika is a last-minute recruit to challenge pre-race favourite Tirunesh Dibaba for the VisitScotland Great Edinburgh Cross Country title on Saturday.

Brendan Mooney, Helsinki

LASSE VIREN’S long-striding style was a familiar feature of seventies distance running. Brendan Mooney met the flying Finn in Helsinki as the city prepares to host the World Athletics Championships.

Craig Mottram believes Australian athletics will improve if runners arrive early to acclimatise to conditions prior to next year’s Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

Haile Gebrselassie is backing London’s bid to stage the 2012 Olympic Games despite claims in Spain he had put his support behind rival city Madrid.

SPRINTING the final lap of the 10,000m, Kenenisa Bekele ended the reign of fellow Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie last night with an Olympic-record winning time of 27 minutes, 05.10 seconds.

Olympic legend Haile Gebrselassie was tonight facing possible Athens heartbreak with an Achilles injury threatening to rule him out of the Games.

Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie is aiming to become the first man to win three consecutive Olympic 10,000metres gold medals – but he still puts his nation’s interests first.

Haile Gebrselassie, the world’s greatest-ever distance runner, will start a serious road running career by competing in next month’s BUPA Great North Run in Britain.

VICTORIES by four genuine Olympic medal hopefuls helped atone for a bitterly disappointing display by Britain’s 100 metres sprinters in the Norwich Union London Grand Prix at a sweltering Crystal Palace last night.

African star Kenenisa Bekele will make his first outdoor UK track appearance by running at the Norwich Union British Grand Prix in Gateshead next month.

Olympic sprint champion Marion Jones will return to European track action at the Norwich Union Grand Prix in Birmingham on February 20.

CATHAL LOMBARD’S build-up to the Athens Olympics starts in earnest tomorrow when he leaves for altitude training in Albuquerque.

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.

AMERICAN Kelli White won the women’s 100m title last night.

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.

Haile Gebrselassie believes he can break the world marathon record on Sunday when he makes his debut over 26 miles at the Flora London Marathon.

Gareth Turnbull has won his fourth BUPA International 4K title. It was his third title in succession.

Haile Gebrselassie suffered a shock defeat in the 10,000 metres final.