It was always going to be difficult to repeat his semi-final faring in Beijing.

There were mixed fortunes for Ireland’s boxers last night on a day when the track and field team also got a chance to taste the Olympic atmosphere.

A devastated Fionnuala Britton finished 15th in the 10,000m final last night as Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba became the first woman to successfully defend the title.

Ciarán Ó Lionáird will face a defining moment in his career when he lines up for the first round heats of the men’s 1500m at the Olympic Stadium tonight (8.25pm).

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

Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba failed to collect a fourth World Cross Country title today after being run out of the medals in Poland.

USAIN BOLT rallied against cold, wind and Asafa Powell to win the 100 meters in 9.77 seconds last night at the Van Damme Memorial in Brussels.

JAMAICA obliterated the field in the men’s 4x100 metres relay as Usain Bolt claimed his third gold medal and world record of the Beijing Games.

TWO more Olympic athletes have tested positive for drugs bringing the total number of doping violations in Beijing to three.

TWO more Olympic athletes have tested positive for drugs bringing the total number of doping violations in Beijing to three.

PAUL HESSION singled out Brendan Christian (Antigua & Barbuda) as the favourite to win the race before he went to the line for last evening’s 200m at the Bislett Games Golden League meeting in Oslo and then went on to challenge him for the lead coming off the bend.

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.

Tyson Gay picked up a third gold medal and Team USA continued to dominate in sprinting events by winning the 4x100 metres relay at the World Championships in Osaka tonight.

TYSON Gay overcome an uncharacteristic bout of nerves to see off the challenge of Asafa Powell and clinch the 100 metres gold medal last night.

Tirunesh Dibaba battled back from the brink of defeat to retain her World Championships 10,000 metres title in Osaka on Saturday night.

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

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.

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.

Tirunesh Dibaba became the first athlete to achieve the 5000 and 10000 metres double when she defended her title over the shorter distance at the World Championship in Helsinki.

IRELAND’S interest in the world championships in Helsinki ended last night with the elimination of Maria McCambridge (5,000m) and Derval O’Rourke (100m hurdles).

PAULA Radcliffe said yesterday she is thinking of moving on from track running for good, having finished ninth in Saturday’s 10,000m.

Tirunesh Dibaba won in Carlsbad on Sunday and equalled Paula Radcliffe’s 5000m road-race record.

Kenenisa Bekele's record hopes were dashed when he miscounted his laps in the men's 3,000m and staged his sprint finish a lap too soon at the Boston Indoor Games.

AND so it ends. All those nights of shredding fingernails with hearts in our mouths, those nights when our hearts were warmed and broken; in all likelihood, they ended last night as Sonia O’Sullivan finished the 5,000m final in Athens.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN will be back in old, familiar surroundings when she lines up for the final of the women’s 5,000m at the Olympic Stadium in Athens tonight.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN is safely through to Monday night’s final of the women’s 5,000m with a chance of adding another medal to the silver she won in Sydney four years ago.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN has drawn the easier of tonight’s two 5,000m Olympic semi-finals, but the Sydney silver medallist must run her best race of the year to get through to Monday night’s final.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN has been drawn in the same heat as the new world record holder, Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey, for tomorrow night’s second heat of the women’s 5,000m with the first five in each of the two first round heats to qualify along with the five fastest losers.

A course record is expected to fall to world-beater Paula Radcliffe when she heads the British challenge for honours in tomorrow’s Chiba International Ekiden Relay in Japan.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN is prepared to run faster than ever in her quest for a medal at the world championships in Paris today.

TEN years ago, Chinese trio Qu Yunxia, Zhang Linli and Zhang Lirong deprived Sonia O’Sullivan of a medal in the final of the 3,000m at the world championships in Stuttgart.

Ireland's former 5000m world champion Sonia O'Sullivan comfortably qualified for Saturday's final in a season's best time of 14 minutes 55.50secs.