DERVAL O’ROURKE diverted to Dublin en route from Thessalonika on Thursday night for an early morning check-up with Mark McCabe in advance of her appearance today at the Cork City Sports.

HOMETOWN favourite Derval O’Rourke is set to line out at the Cork City sports tomorrow, after overcoming injury concerns in Thessalonika on Wednesday night, according to her coach, Sean Cahill.

DAVID GILLICK fulfilled two ambitions this year when he broke 45 seconds for 400m for the first time and then went on to make the final at the world championships in Berlin.

BERNARD DUNNE may no longer be the WBA world super bantamweight champion but he is still Dublin’s favourite son and if he wanted reassurance, he got it at Dublin City Hall yesterday when he was given a standing ovation by representatives of more than 200 sporting organisations from around the city.

PAUL HESSION, who looks a serious contender for a place in the final of the 200m at next month’s Olympic Games, doubles up in the 100m and 200m at The Mardyke today.

PAUL HESSION ran the fastest ever 200m — unfortunately wind-assisted — by an Irishman when finishing third at last night’s international athletics meeting in Thessalonika.

CAROLINA KLUFT has abandoned her hopes of competing at Cork City Sports on Saturday as a slump in form has sent the Olympic, world and European champion back to her training base in Sweden for some fine tuning.

ALISTAIR CRAGG joins the international stars at Cork City Sports at The Mardyke tomorrow week.

HOPES of having an Irish men’s 4x400m relay team at this year’s Olympics suffered a blow yesterday with the cancellation of the relay events at tomorrow’s meet in Salamanca, Spain.

DERVAL O’ROURKE ended an injury nightmare on Saturday with qualification for the European Indoor Championships in Madrid in March.

WITH Athens looming, Irish athletics got another much-needed boost in advance of the Olympic Games when Mark Carroll finished second in the 3,000m at the Gugi Meeting in Linz on Monday night where Freda Davoren turned in another superb performance to finish third in the women’s 1,500m.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN has been travelling a familiar path along the Olympic route and this weekend could see her repeat her Sydney 2000 strategy should she double up over 800m and 1,500m at the Woodies DIY National Championships at Morton Stadium.

SPRINTER Gary Ryan will take his quest for an Olympic qualifying standard to tonight’s Grand Prix meeting in Thessalonika after again finishing outside the A standard of 20.59 secs in Saturday night’s 200m race in Madrid.

GARY RYAN’S Olympic qualification hopes were boosted yesterday when he was granted a place in the 200m in Saturday’s Meeting de Madrid 2004 - an IAAF Super Grand Prix - and then in Monday’s meet in Thessalonika.