Ailís looks for qualifying time as well as title

AILIS McSWEENEY highlighted her return to form by reclaiming the national indoor 60m title at the Woodies DIY Irish indoor championships at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast last year but there will be more at stake when she defends the title this year.

For the past week, she has been racing around Europe in her quest for the qualifying standard (7.40 secs) for next month’s European Indoor Championships in Turin.

She ran 7.48 secs in Leipzig last Sunday and then, midweek, went to the Indoor Classic in Vienna where she finished third in her heat in 7.54 secs and sixth in the final in 7.57 secs.

“I am running fast at the moment but just not fast enough,” she admitted yesterday. “I honestly expected to do the qualifying standard but it now I will have to wait for the weekend.”

And what a weekend it should be for the junior solicitor from Cork who runs with Leevale AC and trains under the husband and wife coaching team of Sean and Terri Cahill.

The field for the women’s sprints will include the Olympic and world 400m champion, Christine Ohuruogu, who has a best of 7.39 secs for the 60 metres as well as the two Ferrybank sprinters, Niamh Whelan and Kelly Proper, both of whom recorded personal best performances in Birmingham last weekend.

“It is all pretty exciting and I am looking forward to it,” Ailis McSweeney said. “Like I said, I did not run as fast as I had hoped this week but I have not tapered down in training yet.

“While this not her best distance by any stretch of the imagination, the fact that we have an Olympic champion in the field makes it exciting. I want to retain my title and I know I am going to have to run fast to do that.

“The Odyssey is a great place to run. It is a fabulous facility and I am looking forward to defending my title there again.”

She competed in the European Indoor Championships in Madrid in 2005 and went on to win a silver medal in the 100m at the World University Games in Turkey and last year she got to the semi-finals at the World Indoor Championships in Seville.

“The difference is that this time last year I was peaking but the plan this time around is to peak for Turin,” she said.

Paul Hession continued his build up to the European Indoor Championships at the Malmo Indoor Gala on Wednesday night when he finished 100th of a second behind Roberto Donati of Italy in 6.69 secs in a tight finish to the 60m final. Donati won in 6.68 secs and Josh Norman from the US was third in 6.70 secs with Kim Collins third in 6.71 secs.

Earlier Collins had edged Hession out in an equally exciting heat — 6.72 secs to 6.73 secs.