DERVAL O’ROURKE (Leevale) bounced back from a disastrous run in Crystal Palace the previous day to win her ninth title at the Woodies DIY National Senior Championships at Morton Stadium yesterday.

RUAIRÍ FINNEGAN (Letterkenny AC) has qualified for Sunday’s 1500m final at the World Youth Track and Field Championships in Lille.

Francisco ‘Paco’ Javier Fernandez, a multi-medallist at Olympic, World and European level, led home the field in the 3km walk at today's Cork City Sports meeting.

LAST year Robert Heffernan had to watch from the stands as his Irish international team-mate, Jamie Costin (West Waterford), claimed the title and the national 3,000m record at Cork City Sports so it is hardly surprising that the Togher man wants to return and reclaim the limelight at the CIT Track on July 2.

KATE VEALE (West Waterford) won bronze in the junior 10k at theEuropean Racewalking Cup in Olhao, Portugal, on Saturday.

SPORTS Minister Mary Hanafin yesterday refused to rule out the construction of an indoor athletics arena.

ROBERT HEFFERNAN had mixed emotions after missing out on a medal by 11 seconds at the European Championships in Barcelona yesterday.

Rob Heffernan, one of the first Irish athletes in action at the Europan Athletics Championships in Barcelona, was just 11 seconds away from winning a bronze medal in the 20km walk.

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.

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.

UNTIL last weekend, Robert Heffernan held every race walking record up to 50k. But along came his old training partner, Jamie Costin, who smashed his 3,000m time before his home fans at Cork City Sports.

PAUL HESSION underscored his European championship credentials in a fighting finish with arch rival, Brendan Christian (Antigua & Barbuda), in the men’s 200m that ended in a dead heat at Cork City Sports on Saturday.

DERVAL O’ROURKE diverted to Dublin en route from Thessalonika on Thursday night for an early morning check-up with Mark McCabe in advance of her appearance today at the Cork City Sports.

DERVAL O’ROURKE is set to share star billing with world silver medallist, Olive Loughnane, at Cork City Sports at the CIT Track in Bishopstown on July 3.

PAUL HESSION will open what he has described as his “big year” in an unusual setting for a sprinter when he lines up for the 100m at the Great City Games on a specially laid track on the streets of Manchester’s Deansgate on Sunday week.

JAMIE COSTIN achieved the qualifying standard for the European championships but there was disappointment for Robert Heffernan and Olive Loughnane who were both disqualified at the Coppa Città di Sesto San Giovanni IAAF Race Walking Challenge on Saturday.

OLIVE LOUGHNANE, Robert Heffernan and Jamie Costin will have Barcelona on their minds when they line up for their respective events at the Coppa Città di Sesto San Giovanni near Milan, the Italian leg of the IAAF Race Walking Challenge today.

DICK HOOPER, Ireland’s Marathon Man, will be at his old stomping ground, St Anne’s Park in Raheny, tomorrow to present the prizes for the Dublin City Council/BHAA road races when the programme will be comprised of a men’s four-mile race and women’s two mile race.

PAUL HESSION (Athenry) got exactly what he wanted in the form of a smart 6.75 second victory in the 60m final at the Woodies DIY Indoor Championships of Ireland at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast yesterday.

OLIVE LOUGHNANE has been forced out of this weekend’s Woodies DIY Irish indoor championships at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast with injury.

PATSY McGONAGLE will lead the Irish track and field team into the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

JOHN FOLEY is the interim chief executive of Athletics Ireland, an organisation that has gone through a traumatic period with the resignation of their very first chief executive, Brendan Hackett, early last year.

DAVID GILLICK emerged from the old Olympic Stadium in Berlin last night with his head held high, after finishing sixth in the final of the men’s 400m.

Irish athlete David Gillick has finished sixth in the final of the 400 Metres at the World Championships tonight.

Ireland’s 50k race walkers Jamie Costin and Colin Griffin were unable to finish the 50k race walk final at the World Championships this morning.

JIM KIDD, David Gillick’s former coach at Dundrum/South Dublin, predicts he will break the Irish record in the final of the men’s 400m at the world championships in Berlin this evening (8.20 pm Irish time).

Alistair Cragg was unable to relive past glories and secure a place in the Final of the 5,000m at the World Championships in Berlin tonight.

THOMAS CHAMNEY is named on the Irish team in both the 800m and 1,500m for the world athletics championships in Berlin, ruling out arch rival David Campbell, who had been hoping for the 800m berth.

MIDDLE distance fans could be in for a double treat at the Woodies DIY national track and field championships at Santry’s Morton Stadium tomorrow with the possibility of a head to head between Thomas Chamney and David Campbell in both the 800m and the 1,500m finals.

OLYMPIANS Olive Loughnane and Robert Heffernan will be the star attractions at the Dublin Grand Prix of Race Walking in the Phoenix Park today (11am).

AFTER covering 50 kilometres in 4:15.16, it took Jamie Costin almost 90 minutes to cross the 200 or so yards from the Olympic finishing line to the interview zone.

Waterford athlete Jamie Costin has pulled off a remarkable never-say-die achievement in Beijing.

IT MAY be something of a second coming but Jamie Costin will have arrived when he lines up for the 50k walk in the Bird’s Nest tomorrow morning (12.30am Irish time).

RACE walking legend Robert Korzeniowski arrives in Beijing today to help Robert Heffernan put the finishing touches to his preparations for tomorrow morning’s (2am Irish time) 20km walk.

ROBERT HEFFERNAN continued his sensational build-up to the Olympic Games by knocking 20 seconds off his national record for the 10,000m walk at the Woodies DIY national senior track and field championships yesterday.

IRISH paralympian Jason Smyth has the talent to compete in the London Olympics, his coach, Stephen Maguire, claimed last night.

THE Irish Curling Association was formally admitted to the Olympic Council of Ireland last night.

The Irish team for next month's Olympic Games in Beijing has been officially unveiled in Dublin today.

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.

ROBERT HEFFERNAN achieved another major milestone on Saturday when he knocked almost a minute off his national record.

OLIVE LOUGHNANE can’t wait to toe the line at the 23rd IAAF World Race Walking Cup in Cheboksary, Russia, on Sunday for several reasons but mainly her recent good form.

ROBERT HEFFERNAN faces his first big test of Olympic year when he lines up for the first leg of the IAAF Race Walking Challenge in Chihuahua, northern Mexico, on Saturday.

The inaugural National Athletics Awards 2007 were launched today by Athletics Ireland.