Red-hot Irish trio book tickets to Beijing

THREE Irish athletes produced superlative performances in Mannheim over the weekend to qualify for next month’s world junior championships in Beijing.

David McCarthy (West Waterford) who came so close to achieving the qualifying standard for 1,500m (3:48.00) at the BUPA Cork City Sports a week earlier and again in Mannheim on Saturday, got the standard at 800m on Sunday when he ran 1:49.93 which was well inside the 1:51.00 standard.

He still has plenty of time to get the 1,500m standard as the cut off point is not until July 23 and that’s the weekend of the national senior championships.

Another star schoolboy, sprinter Jason Smyth from Derry, booked his place on Friday night with a 10.61 sec 100m run which was inside the Beijing standard of 21.64 secs and also equalled the Irish junior record which Derek O’Connor set in 1983.

Chris Quinn (Lagan Valley) qualified at 400m Hurdles when he ran a new pb of 53.23 secs in Gothenburg on Friday evening. He has promised this all season with a fine series of wins including victories in the Irish schools championships and then the national junior championships.

Amy Foster narrowly missed the Beijing standard (11.90) when she finished second in the 100m in Mannheim in 11.93 secs and then she was only .02 of a second outside the 200m standard when she finished fourth in 24.32 secs.

Paul Hession, who claimed some big scalps when winning the 200m at the BUPA Cork City Sports a week earlier, claimed another big one in Cuxhaven, Germany, on Friday night when he beat Europe’s fourth fastest 200m runner, Johan Wissman, in 20.75 secs.

Liam Reale finished third in the 1,500m in 3:39.29 while Thomas Chamney finished fifth in the 800m in 1:48.61. Anna Boyle finished fifth in the 100m in 11.67 secs and Ciara Sheehy was sixth in the 200m in 23.86 secs. In her first run in Europe this season, Sinead Evans finished fifth in the 1,500m in 4:13.94.

Martin Fagan (Mullingar Harriers) who already has European qualifying standards for both 5,000m and 10,000m went close to the 1,500m mark (3:41.00) in Aarhus, Denmark, when finishing fourth in 3:41.89 while his clubmate, Mark Christie, finished sixth in 3:42.06.

In Lucerne Michelle Carey continued her superb season when winning the 400m in 56.82 secs while Mary Cullen was ninth in a quality 3,000m in 9:05.16 with Roisin McGettigan 13th in 9:10.87.

Deirdre Ryan finished third in the high jump, clearing 1.83m, but the biggest breakthrough came from Fionnuala Britton who knocked some 10 seconds off her previous best when she ran 4:18.92 in the 1,500m.

World indoor 60m hurdles champion, Derval O’Rourke, will be back in action in Lausanne in a star-studded 100m hurdles.