Roisin McGettigan and Fionnuala Britton kick off a potentially exciting future for Irish athletics at the World Championships beginning in Osaka on Saturday.

A SQUAD that is young enough to form the nucleus of Ireland’s Olympic team for London 2012 will represent Ireland at the IAAF world championships in Osaka in two weeks.

Ireland will field a small but strong team at the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Osaka next month.

Athletics Ireland have announced their provisional team for this year’s World Championships, which take place in Osaka, Japan from the August 25 to September 2.

Max Jones is adopting a realistic but cautious approach as he undertakes his first major meeting as Ireland’s director of athletics at the European Cup in Vaasa.

MAX JONES, Ireland’s new Director of Athletics and the man entrusted with the task of breathing new life into the sport, will soon travel around the country to meet the coaches and volunteers.

Athletics Ireland have today announced Max Jones as its new director of athletics.

Paula Radcliffe has been officially listed to compete in tomorrow night’s Olympic 10,000 metres final – but has still made no decision about competing.

Darren Campbell is fit enough to run in tonight’s men’s 200 metres semi-final.

Kelly Holmes is looking sharp enough to handle the challenge of adding a 1500 metres gold medal to the one she has already won over 800m, according to the British camp.

Paula Radcliffe was increasing the intensity of her training in Athens this morning as she moved closer to making a decision about whether to run in Friday night’s 10,000metres final.

UK Athletics chief Max Jones today admitted Britain’s track team will struggle to match their Sydney medal haul in Athens next month – but insisted comparisons between the two games are unfair.

Darren Campbell’s anxious 36-hour wait over Olympic selection ended this morning when he was included in the Great Britain team for both the 100 and 200 metres.

Tracey Morris is hoping for a quieter existence after today’s BUPA Great Manchester Run – until August at least.

Charles van Commenee, the Dutchman who guided Denise Lewis to her Olympic heptathlon gold medal four years ago, is emerging as a strong candidate to become UK Athletics’ new coaching supremo.

Denise Lewis today admitted that spending too much time celebrating her Olympic gold medal played a part in her being forced to pull out of the world championships in Canada.