Nolan, Hession cleared for Helsinki
But a decision on David Gillick (400m) will be delayed until later today.
Nolan, the holder, finished third in a pedestrian Morton Mile where a 65 second third lap put paid to hopes of a sub four minute mile, but his 55 second final lap was sufficient to convince the selectors he was ready for the fray.
Paul Hession, after a prolonged period of injury, made a welcome return and did enough with a third-place finish in the 200m in 20.89 secs behind Till Helmke (20.54), a member of Germany’s relay squad for the world championships, and Tim Abeyie of Britain.
With 20 sub-four men in the field, o the Morton Mile had the ingredients to be a sizzler but a 65 second third lap left a bunch of runners fighting out a flying finish.
Eoin Cummins had them on target when he took them through 800m in 2:00.6 but it all came apart on that third lap. At the bell young Colin Costello, who won the gold medal in the 1,500m at the European junior championships in Kaunas a week earlier, hit the front and sparked off a sizzling last lap.
He was rewarded when he achieved his target Ray Flynn’s 29-year-old Irish junior record which stood at 4:02.6. The young Meath man rewrote that when he finished sixth in 4:01.83.
Victory went to Yousef Abdi of Australia in 4:01.13, with Luke Watson from the USA second in 4:01.30 and the defending champion, James Nolan, third in 4:01.36. Another of Ireland’s exciting young guns, Mark Christie from Mullingar, returned an excellent 4:01.65 in fourth place.
It was a day for the young guns. Leevale sprinters, Jer O’Donoghue and Ailish McSweeney, turned the national championship results upside down with personal records albeit wind assisted in winning their respective 100m races.
O’Donoghue, who is enjoying his best season to date, out-sprinted the national senior champion, Gary Ryan, and Germany’s Till Helmke to win the 100m in 10.42 secs.
Ailish McSweeney who was a disappointing fourth in the national championships was back to her best when she won the women’s 100m in 11.48 secs, significantly leaving Emily Maher and Joyce Maduaka of Britain in her wake.
Then she took third place behind Maduaka and Ciara Sheehy in the 200m to put her in just the right frame of mind for the forthcoming world student games.
Two of the women heading for Helsinki this week where given timely boosts in advance of the world championships.
Eileen O’Keeffe from Kilkenny broke the national record for the hammer for the third time in two weeks when she won her event with a throw of 69.36 metres one of only three legal throws and that was better than her 68.14 the previous Saturday at the national championships and adds more than seven metres to the record in the past year.
She can throw beyond the 70 metres in Helsinki where she becomes the first Irish woman to throw the hammer at a major championships and if she can get her sequence together she will have just three throws to qualify for the final she can figure in the second session.
Derval O’Rourke again claimed a star billing as she sprinted to two victories in the 100m hurdles.
She won the first race in 13.18 secs but when the English girl, Julie Pratt, was left at the start so it was agreed to run a second race an hour later and the Leevale athlete again won this time in 12.97 secs to the highlight the fact that she can become a consistent sub-13 second performer.
Eoin Leen (UCC\Tralee Harriers) has been absent from the circle for much of the time since he made the shot putt at the world junior championships but he highlighted his return to top class - this time in the discus with a career best throw of 51.89m.
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