Turnbull makes mark, but Davoren misses out

GARETH TURNBULL has achieved his ambition of posting the B standard for the world championships.

Turnbull completed the task last week at Cuxhaven, Germany, winning the 1500m in a new personal best time of 3:36.60 but Freda Davoren missed the standard by just four tenths of a second. Turnbull, who turned in a blistering last lap to win the 1500m at the BUPA Cork City Sports earlier this month, needed something special to book his flight to Paris in August and he found by running almost two seconds better than his previous best set some two years ago, moving him to the top of the current Irish ranking list.

More significant was that he had a string of Algerians and Kenyans trailing in his wake and he now has no problem deciding between the world championships and the world student games in Korea. A former world student medallist, there would have been little gain in revisiting that level.

Davoren ran more than two seconds faster to overtake Sonia O’Sullivan on the ranking list for the year when she ran a new career best time at 4:07.56, only marginally outside the world championship qualifying standard of 4:07.15. She has a race in Madeira this weekend in another bid to achieve the elusive standard.

“I’m not sure what the field is like but the weather there is fantastic at the moment and it should suit me,” Davoren said yesterday. “The conditions were perfect, we had a pacemaker and I had a good Russian to chase around. I was just outside the time but I’m close enough to be optimistic.

“I was very disappointed after Cork. The race had gone well for me and, to be honest, I thought I was going to win it. But then at the final bend I discovered I had nothing left “But I went to Cardiff the following Wednesday just to get it out of my system. I ran an 800m there. It was a tactical race and I sprinted off the final bend to win it. OK, it was not a very fast time but I went there just to prove to myself I could do it.

“I am pretty close to the qualifying standard for the worlds now so I’m hoping I can do it at the weekend.

Sixteen-year-old Ann Loughnane, who became the first Irish athlete to win a medal at world youth championship level, will be hoping for more of the same at the European juniors in Finland this week.

Sister of world ranked race walker, Olive Loughnane, she won a walk silver medal at the world youths in Sherbroke, Canada, less than two weeks ago having earlier set a national junior record at the KitKat Irish schools championships in Tullamore.

The team for Tampere, where the championships get under way today, is one of the strongest Irish junior teams to compete at this level. Also included is national senior pole vault record holder Erin Kinnear, a former international gymnast who broke her own national senior record at the Ulster schools championships.

The team is comprised of Joanne Cuddihy (Kilkenny City Harriers) the national junior 400m record holder; Kinnear (Lagan Valley); Loughnane (Loughrea) and Catriona McMahon (St Mary’s), both in the 10,000m walk; Irish schools double champion Ciaran O’Connell (Glaslough), who goes in the 800m along with Thomas Chamney (Clonmel); and shot putt record holder Eoin Leen (Tralee Harriers), a finalist in the world youth championships a couple of years ago.