Liam Reale has booked a place in the final of the Men's 1,500 after coming eighth in his heat of the Men's 1,500m at the European Championships in Gothenburg this evening.

Irish medal hopeful David Gillick has finished second in his 400m heat in the European Championships in Gothenburg this morning, coming in just behind Britain’s Tim Benjamin.

IRELAND’s Paul McKee must launch his European Championship campaign from lane nine when the first-round heats of the 400 metres get under way today.

Derval O'Rourke, Alistair Cragg and David Gillick are top of the pile in the 29-strong team chosen to represent Ireland at next month's European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg.

ALISTAIR CRAGG took another big step towards European gold this summer with a personal best in a historic 5,000 metres in New York.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN will present the awards when the Irish Milers Club stages 1,500m races for men and women in conjunction with the Kit Kat Irish Schools Track and Field Championships in Tullamore tomorrow.

LIMERICK man Liam Reale added his name to the growing list of qualifiers for the European championships when he finished second in the elite men’s 1,500m race at last weekend’s Boston High Performance meeting.

KAREN SHINKINS, one of the athletes dumped on the scrapheap by the Irish Sports Council and left without any financial aid when they introduced their new carding scheme earlier this year, was the one athlete who saved Irish blushes on a dismal opening to the world championships in Helsinki.

FEW athletes in Helsinki have made more sacrifices than Robert Heffernan and the 27-year-old Togher man will be hoping to reap the rewards in the 20k walk today (4.40pm Irish time).

GERARD HARTMANN will anxiously watch tonight’s final of the women’s 10,000m at a Sports Bar in Limerick along with the double Olympic champion, Kelly Holmes.

IRELAND’S representation at the World Athletics Championships in Helsinki was down to 11 yesterday following the withdrawal of David Gillick.

MARK CARROLL will today be confirmed as an entrant in this year’s ING New York City Marathon on November 6.

DAVID GILLICK, the European indoor 400m champion, has been named on the Irish team for the world championships in Helsinki the weekend after next.

A total of 12 athletes are to represent Ireland at the World Athletics Championships, beginning on August 5, after Athletics Ireland announced their team today.

EIGHT sportspeople have been named in the Athletics Ireland’s World Class Panel, a key component of the Association’s new Performance Plan.

PAUL McKEE, bronze medallist in the 400m at the world indoor championships in Birmingham, is on the way back and is predicting medals from the 4x400m relay at next year’s European championships in Gothenburg.

There was disappointment for Irish cross country champion Jolene Byrne in the European Cup 10,000 metres in Barakaldo, Spain, yesterday - despite his fifth-place finish.

MARIE DAVENPORT was yesterday forced to put her marathon debut on hold after failing to recover from a calf injury in time to run the ING New York City Marathon tomorrow.

MARIE DAVENPORT will provide Irish interest in Sunday’s New York City Marathon when she makes her debut over the distance alongside world record holder Paula Radcliffe, and Sonia O’Sullivan’s Australian training partner, Benita Johnson.

MANY athletes are turning their attentions to the marathon. Over 10,000 are heading for Dublin on October 25 but Mark Carroll has his sights on a big one.

IRISH Olympian Marie Davenport will run her first marathon next month when she takes on the hallowed 26.2 mile course around New York City.

Ireland's Marie Davenport finished 14th in tonight's women's 10,000m in at time of 31:50.49.

The Irish team is in action in mountain biking, show-jumping and the women’s 10,000m event at the Olympic Games in Athens today.

MARIE DAVENPORT will have the rare experience of going to the line in a healthy state for a major championship when she goes in the final of the women’s 10,000m at the Olympic Stadium tonight.

Ireland’s Mark Carroll could compete over the 5,000 metres as well as the marathon at this summer’s Olympics after meeting the qualification standard.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN makes her seasonal debut over 5,000m at tonight’s track meet at Stanford, California.

EVERY cloud has a silver lining and that’s how it turned out for the Irish women’s team at the European cross-country championships in Edinburgh yesterday when the dark rain cloud dipped behind the Haggis Knowe and they swept past a shocked French team to claim their silver team medals.

SHE can’t think of a better way to end the year than a medal from European cross-country championships.

SEAMUS POWER bids for a sensational ninth consecutive national inter-counties cross-country title on Sunday, and his training partner and arch rival, Peter Matthews, admits it will take a super human performance to dethrone the Clareman.

CATHERINA McKIERNAN was back in full training yesterday, within hours of winning the women’s race at the Margate International.

GILLIAN O’SULLIVAN’S silver medal in the 20k walk at the world championships in Paris and Paul Hession’s silver medal in the sprints at the World Student Games in Korea over the past week means Ireland has claimed a medal from all the track and field championships this year.

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.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN raced to her 12th national senior track title when she retained her 5,000m title at the national track and field championships at Morton Stadium and declared herself ready for the world championships in Paris in just under two weeks time.

ROBERT HEFFERNAN will miss the 20th IAAF World Cup for racewalking in Turin in two weeks time on account of injury. The Togher athlete is nursing a knee injury.