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.

ALISTAIR CRAGG has conquered Europe and is ready to take on the world. The new European indoor 3,000m champion plans that assault in two weeks time when he renews rivalry with the double champion, Kenenisa Bekele, at the World cross-country championships in Saint-Etienne/Saint-Galmier.

ALISTAIR Cragg will begin his first indoor track season as a professional athlete against a quality field in Boston later this month.

THE wide-eyed look of disbelief told it all: He kissed the track and danced a jig. This ­ for the fans of track and field at least ­ was the greatest moment of the 2004 Olympic Games

Moroccan middle-distance star Hicham El Guerrouj has announced he plans to retire in 2006.

Ireland’s Alistair Cragg had to settle for 12th place in tonight’s thrilling 5,000metres final in Athens.

Hicham El Guerrouj completed a second golden double of the night as victory in the men’s 5,000metres final created his own piece of history.

Ireland's Alastair Cragg had a disappointing race in the men's 5000metres final, finishing 12th in a time of 13:43.06.

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.

SONIA O'SULLIVAN will not run on the track again this season and could opt to retire after her disappointing display in the 5,000m final.

Twenty-four-year-old Alistair Cragg ran one of the races of his life as he came through his 5000m heat as a fastest loser, qualifying him for Saturday's 5000m final in just his first major track championship.

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

ALISTAIR CRAGG takes another step on an amazing career path when he lines up for the semi-finals of the 5,000m in Athens tonight.

Offaly runner James Nolan finished well outside of the qualification reckoning in his 1500m semi-final last night in the Olympic stadium, clocking 3:42.61 for tenth behind race winner Adil Kaouch.

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.

James Nolan has reached the semi-final of the 1500m at the Olympic Games in Athens this evening.

ROBERT HEFFERNAN commences the Irish athletic campaign in Athens today in the men’s 20k walk - the first event at the Olympic Stadium this morning.

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

A MILLION dollar sprint featuring the Olympic, world and European 100 metre champions and the world record holder, is the highlight of a glamorous and highly lucrative Moscow athletics meeting tonight.

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.

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.

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.

WITH national champion and record-holder Paul McKee and runner-up Rob Daly opting for the 200m, bronze medallist Antoine Burke will carry Irish hopes in a star-studded 400m at the Dublin International Games tonight.