The Leevale Sports showcased some of Ireland’s best talent on Saturday with Marcus Lawler leading the way, clocking 21.14 seconds in the 200m, while Matthew Behan broke the national junior record in the 110m hurdles.

Emerald’s Ciara Neville announced herself as a star of the future at the GloHealth National Indoor Championships in Athlone as current stars Mark English and Kelly Proper continued their dominance.

A surprise, but welcome, women’s team bronze medal brightened up a mixed day of Irish performances in Borovets as Fionnuala Britton battled to a sixth place finish at the European Cross Country Championships yesterday.

Fionnuala Britton led Ireland women’s team to bronze at today’s European cross country championships in Samokova, Bulgaria.

Fionnuala Britton will earn her 31st international cap at next month’s European cross country championships in Bulgaria.

Athletics: Fionnuala Britton romped to her fifth GloHealth Inter-Counties Cross-Country Championships title in Dundalk yesterday while Paul Pollock defended his crown in a thrilling three-way sprint finish.

Fionnuala Britton stole the show at Sunday’s GloHealth Inter County cross country championship and declared her aim to win a third European cross country title.

Fionnuala Britton raced to her second consecutive Glo Health Inter-Counties cross-country title and declared she was ready for a third European cross country title.

Men cross-dressing, runners of both sexes, charities jumping for joy — the Evening Echo Women’s mini- marathon attracted it’s usual quota of outrageous outfits, pink wigs and big hearts, all out for a good cause.

Thomas Barr beat world champion Jehue Gordon in the 400m hurdles in a new stadium record of 48.94 at a pulsating Morton Games in Dublin last night while the mile record for Morton was also shattered by American Will Leer in 3:51.82 as 10 men went under four minutes.

Rob Heffernan will be making a short stopover in Cork on Tuesday evening as he attempts to defend his Cork City Sports 3,000m race-walk title.

Thomas Barr goes into Tuesday’s Cork City Sports ranked number three in Europe over 400m hurdles and he believes the home meet can help him in his quest for a medal at the European Championships in August.

At 27, Mark Hanrahan found himself at a crossroads.

ATHLETICS: Paul Robinson mixed with the world’s best milers in the Dream Mile at the Bislett Games in Oslo, Norway last night and came away with a new personal best of 3:54.77.

Paul Robinson went under the four-minute barrier when he finished third in the Herb Elliot mile at the Perth Track Classic in Australia on Saturday.

UCD’s Mark English underlined his world-class potential at the Woodie’s DIY AAI Games in Athlone yesterday with a national 800m indoor record (1:46.82) which qualifies him for the world indoors.

Fionnuala Britton declared herself happy with her competitive return to action at the Gerry Farnan cross country festival yesterday as she cruised to victory over three miles in 15:45 in the Phoenix Park.

Ireland’s most celebrated athlete, Sonia O’Sullivan, has announced her intention to be a more active “leading light” for Irish athletes and give back to the sport she loves by setting up her own group to develop athletes to deliver on the world stage.

Cork’s Brian Murphy showed true grit in the men’s 400m to win his third national title in a row in 47.14, as Kelly Proper was laden with gold and four national titles in monsoon conditions at the 141st Woodie’s DIY National Track and Field Championships in Morton Stadium over the weekend.

Kelly Proper took athlete of the championships after taking four gold medals at the Woodies DIY national track and field championships.

Middle-distance athlete Laura Crowe may have to throw in the towel on achieving qualification for next month’s World Championships.

Fionnuala Britton’s decision to skip the remainder of the outdoor season was taken with a longer-term view, admitted coach Chris Jones.

Now firmly settled in its new home at the CIT track in Bishopstown, the Cork City Sports International meet captured the partisan crowd’s attention last night as Robert Heffernan clocked a new national record in the 3,000m race walk.

American sprinter Cleo VanBuren is determined to write her name into the history books by becoming the first lady to break 11 seconds on Irish soil.

Ireland are well on course to retaining League One status the European team championships, held in Dublin today.

Athletics Ireland High Performance Director Kevin Ankrom admitted Ireland will be fighting for survival at the European Team Championships first league in Morton Stadium on June 22/23 on the announcement of the team yesterday.

Derval O'Rourke and Fionnuala Britton will lead a weakened Irish team in the European Team championship next week.

This morning we put out a Facebook post looking for your poems on World Poetry Day. We were overwhelmed by the response.

With grown men banging the blue-boarded track and a raucous crowd standing on their feet as John Travers broke eight minutes for the 3,000m, it truly was Super Sunday at the Woodie’s DIY National Indoor Championships in Athlone in a day to remember for Irish athletics aficionados.

Jason Smyth’s attempts to become the first individual athlete to compete in the Olympic and Paralympic games came to an end in Santry Stadium today, but it was the extent of a possible injury to Derval O'Rourke that occupied Team Ireland's minds.

Derval O’Rourke had a grin of satisfaction after reclaiming her 60m hurdles title at the Woodies DIY Irish indoor championships at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast yesterday in 8.21 secs — modest by her standards.

Ciara Everard and Laura Crowe combined to produce the most exciting race of the domestic indoor season when they clashed in the 800m at the recent Universities Championships in Nenagh, breaking the U23 record set by Sonia O’Sullivan all of 22 years ago.

FIONNUALA BRITTON beat a quality field to notch up another victory in Saturday’s IAAF Grand Challenge Cross Country International over a rain-sodden course in Greenmount, Antrim.

FIONNUALA BRITTON beat a quality field to notch up another victory in Saturday’s IAAF Grand Challenge Cross Country International over a rain sodden course in Greenmount, Antrim.

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.

There were two exciting new additions to Ireland’s illustrious list of sub four minute milers last night as seven athletes in all went under four minutes in the featured Morton Mile at the Clonliffe Harriers Grand Prix at Morton Stadium.

KELLY PROPER (Ferrybank) and Marian Andrews (Togher), two of the Irish athletes who excelled at the European indoor championships in Turin last month, will be in action at The Mardyke on Sunday when Leevale Athletic Club promote their annual sports meeting.

KERRY sprinter Jer O’Donoghue got the new year off to a stylish start at the Nenagh Arena yesterday when he retained his Munster AAI 60m title in 6.93 secs.

THE battle of the women sprinters took on a new dimension at the Woodies DIY National Senior Championships in Morton Stadium yesterday when hurdler Derval O’Rourke entered the fray and almost pulled off what would have been a sensational double.

THE team for next month’s European Youth Olympic Festival in Lignano was finalised following the Kit Kat Irish Schools Track and Field Championships on Saturday when, despite some inclement weather, all the qualifiers produced some spectacular performances.

ATHLETES from all 32 counties will converge on the Tullamore Harriers Track for the Kit Kat Irish Schools championships today.

THE future stars of Irish athletics produced impressive displays at the Kit Kat Munster Schools track and field championships in CIT on Saturday.

IRISH High Jump sensation Adrian O’Dwyer from Kilkenny yesterday became the 13th Irish athlete to achieve the Olympic A standard when he set an Irish record of 2.30m at a meeting in Algiers.