Brady back as relay quartet set sights on Europeans

CLAIRE BRADY (Celbridge) will be back in action on Irish soil on Sunday when she lines up for the 100m at the Woodies DIY AAI Games, which return to Castleisland after a 10-year absence. The Games will include senior relays as well as Paralympic events and a Masters 3km team event.

Brady, who won the 60m at the indoor championships in Belfast and qualified for the World Indoor Championships in Doha, was missing from the line-up when John Sheehan brought his relay squads to Cork.

This time round Derval O’Rourke will be missing, but National 100m champion Ailis McSweeney and the Ferrybank pair of Kelly Proper and Niamh Whelan will be in action.

Proper, the long jump record-holder who also competed in Doha, will focus on the 100m before all four combine for the 4x100m relay with their sights firmly on the European championships in Barcelona in July.

Patrick Maher (Leevale), who set a new Irish junior 400m hurdles record at 52.14 secs last month when he also qualified for the world junior championships will also compete. He won the 400m at the South Munster Schools championships this week and will compete in that event on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Paul Hession will have a somewhat unusual setting for his seasonal debut when he lines up for the men’s 100m at the Powerade Manchester Games on the streets of Deansgate on Sunday.

The Athenry sprinter, who holds all the Irish records up to 200m, would have preferred the 150m but is happy to get a place in the shorter race.

Mark Lewis Francis, bronze medallist at the World Indoor Championships, and former world junior champion, Richard Kilty, a member of the GB team that won the silver medals in the 4x100m relay at the European U23 championships and young Andrew Robertson complete the field.

Martin Fagan, who won the Great Ireland run and finished seventh in the Great Edinburgh run, will line up for the Bupa Great Manchester Run alongside the legendary Ethiopian Haile Gebreselassie the former Olympic and world champion who has set 26 world records including the marathon (2:03.59).

Further afield, Colin Griffin (Ballinamore AC) and Laura Reynolds (Mohill AC) will compete in the IAAF World Race Walking Cup in Chihuahua, Mexico this weekend.

Laura Reynolds competes in the 20k walk after setting a personal best at 1:39:29 in March while Griffin will compete in the 50k. Athletics Ireland has announced a team of 11 for the European Youth Olympic Trials in Moscow on May 21-23. This is a qualifying event for the Summer Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in August.

Highlighting Ireland’s strength in the discipline, there will be two Irish representatives in the girls’ walk when junior record holder, Kate Veale (West Waterford), will be joined by Emma Prendiville (Farranfore/Maine Valley).

Team: Boys 400m: Paul Scanlon (Leevale); Girls 1,000m: Ciara Dullaghan (Lagan Valley); Boys’ 1,000m: Mark English (Letterkenny) and Adam Ingram (Lagan Valley); Girls’ 100m: Sarah Lavin (Emerald AC); Boys 10k Walk: James Treanor (Shercock AC); Girls 5k Walk: Kate Veale (West Waterford) and Emma Prendiville (Farranfore/Maine Valley); Hammer: Dempsey McGuigan (Finn Valley AC); Discus: Marco Pons (DMP); Long Jump: Sally Rose Maughan (Castlebar).

Team Manager: Bernie Alcorn.