Healy – who missed a lot of the season through a broken foot – wasn’t able to move up after falling behind in the first half of the heat.

It was a lifetime of work, packed into four ferocious hours, and at the end of it Brendan Boyce had his just reward. Sixth in the world in the 50km race walk, an event that seems to encapsulate his very existence.

There’s never been a World Championships quite like these, and the jury is out on whether that’s a good thing. From the captivating energy of Beijing 2015 to the thronged stands of London 2017, we find ourselves here, in Doha, Qatar, wondering just what the sport and its athletes have done to deserve this.

Mark English and Ciara Mageean will spearhead the home interest at tonight’s Morton Games and, with a little over five weeks until the World Championships, it’s a key chance for them against international rivals.

Phil Healy is confident a return to her best form is not far in the distance after two fourth-place finishes at the 68th Cork City Sports meet.

A horde of world-class athletes will take to the track at the Cork IT Athletics Stadium tomorrow evening, with the 68th edition of the BAM Cork City Sports set to be one of the best ever. Cathal Dennehy looks at five of the best storylines to follow.

A moment of arrival for Ciara Neville, packed into 11.33 blissful seconds of blazing speed, which passed by in a bright, brilliant blur.

Ireland’s Leon Reid has finished sixth in the men’s 200m at the Diamond League meeting in Rabat.

So that’s nearly Sunday evening wrapped up. Here’s some of the stories we published on irishexaminer.com today which we hope will help you make sense of it all this evening.

Ireland’s fastest woman lived up to her billing with a brilliant performance at the Irish Universities Athletics Championships in Athlone on Saturday.

When the dust has settled, the medals safely stowed away, the question is not so much about what Irish athletes achieved at last weekend’s European Indoor Championships, but how they did it.

As Irish teams go, this is a strong one, with three medal contenders lurking in their midst — and that’s before we get to Thomas Barr, an Olympic finalist and European bronze medallist.

A strong Irish team of 16 athletes have been selected for next month's European Indoor Athletics Championships in Glasgow.

The indoor 400m is renowned as a full-contact sport, with Thomas Barr feeling the full brunt of it yesterday in Abbotstown, as his bid for the Irish indoor title was shunted aside by rival Andrew Mellon.

Phil Healy and Ciara Mageean starred internationally with good early season form while there was a host of championship best performances at the Irish Life Health U20 & U23 Championships in Athlone over the weekend.

On a day that celebrated the past, it was hard not to look to the future. Yesterday’s National Athletics Awards in Blanchardstown may have brought together many current and former greats, but it wasn’t a nostalgic reflection that left a strong sense of optimism.

Medals have a habit of distracting attention, bright and shiny as they are, so to get a feel for the current state of Irish athletics after the European Championships in Berlin you have to step back from Thomas Barr’s brilliant bronze and look at the week as a whole.

Phil Healy’s individual run has come to an end at the European Athletics Championships in Berlin, after a gallant display in the women’s 200m semi-finals – but still has the 4x100m relay to come.

Your lunchtime headlines:

The planning started from his sick bed. It was August 2017, and Thomas Barr was lying in his hotel room in London, his World Championships brought to a grinding halt by gastroenteritis, which had reduced a world-class athlete to a sweating, vomiting wreck on the most important day of his year.

Few people know a thing about it but the brains behind the inaugural European Championships, starting this morning and continuing over the next 10 days in Glasgow and Berlin, plan to change all that.

Thomas Barr (Ferrybank) and Ciara Mageean (UCD) will lead a strong Irish team of 41 athletes competing at the European Athletics Championships in Berlin on August 6-12.

Medal hopes Thomas Barr and Ciara Mageean gave themselves the perfect send-off for next week’s European Championships in Berlin with foot-perfect performances at the Irish Life Health National Championships in Santry yesterday.

Your morning headlines

She couldn't race after the dramatic victory due to a knee that had swelled to "the size of a balloon".

Phil Healy has described her coach Shane McCormack as a “mastermind” after the Bandon sprinter broke the long-standing Irish 100m record at Morton Stadium on Wednesday night.

When it comes to the 400m, Ireland has never had an athlete quite like David Gillick, and during last weekend’s World Indoor Championships he was an interested spectator — though from afar — as Phil Healy ignited hope that the glory days may yet return.

They stayed in their lanes, didn’t get disqualified, and at an event that threatened to descend into farce at one point, there’s something to be said for that.

The success or failure of the Irish team at the World Indoor Championships was always going to be decided by one athlete, and given Phil Healy managed something no Irish athlete had done since 2010, it felt a lot like the former at the close of play in Birmingham last night.

Latest: Phil Healy has become the first Irish athlete for eight years to make progress at a World Indoor Athletics Championships, writes Will Downey.

There won’t be any medals, that’s for sure, and we’re unlikely to see any Irish athlete make a final, but that’s not to say we should stick a skewer in the IAAF World Indoor Championships before they’ve even begun.

Athletics Ireland has announced four athletes for the 2018 World Indoor Championships.

Here’s a prediction: the next great Irish athlete, the one we take a hiatus from work to watch challenge for an Olympic medal, will not be a distance runner.

Amy Foster has equalled the Irish indoor 60m record to qualify for March’s World Indoor Athletics Championships in Birmingham, writes Will Downing.

Canada’s Crystal Emmanuel shone brightest at the 66th edition of the Cork City Sports last night, the 25-year-old blasting to a national record of 22.50 in a race in which Bandon’s Phil Healy broke new ground with a huge personal best of 23.32.

It may be slightly thin on top-level Irish talent, but the 66th edition of the Cork City Sports is once again loaded with such a rich of cast of world-class athletes that few will even notice.

All-Ireland champions Michael Breen and Doireann O’Sullivan are among the 10 winners of the UCC Sports Star Awards, which will be presented at a ceremony tonight.

Mark Christie won the Great Ireland Run in 29:30 in the Phoenix Park yesterday and also secured the national 10km title.

Irish athletics faces some challenges after a difficult European Indoor Championships in Belgrade but there were some green shoots with Ciara Neville gaining valuable experience at her first senior championship.

Ciara Mageean made it through to this evening’s European Indoor 1500m final but it was far from pretty.

Bandon’s Phil Healy gets Irish interest underway at the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade today and she, like the rest of the Irish team, will need to be at her best to advance past the first round.

Ireland has one realistic medal chance as 567 athletes from 49 countries line up for the 34th European Indoor Championships, which start tomorrow in Belgrade.