Mo Farah dragged himself out of bed at 6am to move a step closer to the double-double by cruising through his 5,000 metres heat at the World Championships in Moscow.

Kenenisa Bekele’s star quality was able to pierce through a blustery crosswind at the Spar Great Ireland Run 10km in the Phoenix Park yesterday.

The world’s greatest distance runner, Kenenisa Bekele, will take centre stage at the Spar Great Ireland Run 10k in the Phoenix Park tomorrow as local hope Linda Byrne targets victory in the women’s race in what promises to be a spectacular festival of racing.

Usain Bolt brought the track action at London 2012 to a fittingly brilliant close tonight, anchoring the Jamaican 4x100m relay team to gold in a new world record.

Britain’s Mo Farah tonight won his second gold medal of London 2012 with a thrilling victory in the 5,000 metres on the final night of athletics action.

A tired Mo Farah feels there is a target on his back following his Olympic 10,000m triumph, but vowed to give everything in his bid for an historic long-distance double in London.

For a sense of perspective, you rarely need to look any further than Billy Mitchell.

Olympic champion Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia yesterday smashed the course record when he cruised to victory in the SPAR Great Ireland Run in Dublin’s Phoenix Park yesterday.

The tenth SPAR Great Ireland Run and SPAR Mini and Junior Great Ireland Runs should create a special atmosphere in the Phoenix Park in Dublin tomorrow as over 11,000 adults and children enjoy a family day out.

One of the greatest athletes of all time is to race in Dublin later this year as part of his preparations for London 2012.

Double Olympic champion Kenenisa Bekele has been suspended indefinitely by the Ethiopian Athletics Federation following a row over training camps.

World champion Usain Bolt will start as the favourite to be named 2009 World Male Athlete of the Year at the annual ceremony in Monte Carlo later this month.

ON a night that saw Yelena Isinbayeva bounce back from the disaster of the world championships to set a new world record in the pole vault, Ireland’s David Gillick improved on his Berlin placing to finish fourth in the men’s 400m and Derval O’Rourke finished seventh in the 100m hurdles at the Golden League meeting in Zurich.

AFTER their Berlin adventures, David Gillick and Derval O’Rourke make a quick return to big-time athletics at the Weltklasse in Zurich, the penultimate Golden League meet, tonight.

USAIN BOLT created yet another piece of athletics history last night with a sensational victory in the 200 metres at the World Championships in Berlin.

ALISTAIR CRAGG has been something of an enigma since first donning the Irish singlet.

USAIN BOLT overcame a poor start to claim an easy victory in the 100 metres at the AF Golden League meeting in Zurich despite clearly being under the weather.

Usain Bolt overcame a poor start to claim an easy victory in the 100m at the AF Golden League meeting in Zurich despite clearly being under the weather.

Ireland's Alistair Cragg failed to finish today’s Olympic 5,000m final in Beijing.

JAMAICA’S Melaine Walker continued her nation’s stunning Olympics, winning gold in the 400m hurdles in a new Olympic record of 52.64s.

THE African dominance of global running was reinforced to stranglehold proportions at the world cross-country championships in Edinburgh yesterday where Ethiopians raced to all four individual gold medals and were deprived of gold in just two of the team races by their Kenyan neighbours who won both the senior and junior men’s contests.

LAST year even Zersenay Tadesse himself appeared shocked when he stood on the podium to accept the gold medal at the world cross-country championships in Mombasa.

Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele will bid to land a record sixth IAAF World Cross Country Championship title in Edinburgh on March 30.

EILEEN O’KEEFFE ended her world championships adventure in dramatic fashion last evening when finishing sixth in the final of the women’s hammer with a best throw of 70.93 metres.

EILEEN O’KEEFFE faces the most exciting assignment of her athletics career to date when she contests the final of the women’s hammer competition at the world championships in Osaka today (1.30pm Irish time).

WITH the Olympic Games just around the corner, the world championships, which get under way in Osaka today, has been described as a ‘dress rehearsal’ for Beijing by Patsy McGonagle, Athletics Ireland’s first full-time senior team manager.

Alistair Cragg got over the disappointment of missing last weekend's National Championships by running the fastest 3,000 metres of his career tonight at the IAAF Super Grand Prix meeting in Monaco.

COACH John Mwithiga isconfident his Kenya squad can dominate on home soil in this weekend’s IAAF World Cross Country Championships.

ALISTAIR CRAGG will go head-to-head with Australian distance star Craig Mottram in Boston next weekend, it was confirmed last night.

ASAFA POWELL, Jeremy Wariner and Sanya Richards made it six Golden League wins out of six in Berlin yesterday to earn a cash bonus of $250,000 each.

ALISTAIR CRAGG insisted that a sub-13 minute 5,000m is a definite target for him as he put the finishing touches to his preparations for tomorrow night’s Gaz de France Golden League meeting in Paris.

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

Alistair Cragg finished just outside the medals in the final of the 3,000 metres at the World Indoor Championships in Moscow today.

ALISTAIR CRAGG has endured 12 months of injury and illness since he won the European indoor title over 3,000 metres in Madrid but, half a continent away from his greatest success, he showed in Moscow yesterday he was back to something approaching his best.

Alistair Cragg qualified for Sunday’s World Championships indoor final in Moscow but looked a shadow of the runner who won last year’s European indoor 3000 metres title.

Ireland's Alistair Cragg continued his comeback from a back injury by finishing third in a high class 2-mile run at the Boston Indoor Games overnight.

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.

ALISTAIR CRAGG is relishing a testing return to the international track scene this month as he bids to put a bittersweet 2005 firmly behind him.

Simon Lewis’s selection: Ethiopian runner Kenenisa Bekele.

MEDAL hope Alistair Cragg has been forced to withdraw from the Irish team for Sunday’s European cross-country championships in Tilburg.

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.