Australian-Irish breaks 10-second 100m barrier

PATRICK JOHNSON, whose father emigrated to Australia from Carlow in 1952 has become the first athlete from his country to break 10 seconds for 100m.

The 30-year-old sprinter knocked .17 seconds off his previous best time when winning the 100m in Mito, Japan, with a time of 9.93 secs.

His coach, Esa Peltola, who is also a physiologist, said the best is yet to come from her star pupil.

"This guy is fast. But to me, he is just 6 years of training age," Peltola says. As a coach, I would love to have got hold of him when he was 18 there's no question about that. I just needed to put the best of my knowledge and best of my ability to what was the best way to fast-track this guy to the world level," he said.

Johnson is already looking beyond next year's Olympics. He has the Commonwealth Games in 2006 more or less in his sights, and the 2008 Olympics are not out of the question.

As Johnson recorded his heroics, the world record holder, Tim Montgomery, was beaten by an unknown Canadian, Nicholas Macrozonaris, in the Banamex Grand Prix where he promised to break the world record which he sensationally set last year.

On the domestic front An Riocht AC have plans ready for the next phase of the development of the track at Castleisland.

They bought the land for the track in 1988 and spent around 1.27m developing it. Since it was officially opened in June, 2000, it has become one of the most used facilities in the country.

This week alone 500 athletes took part in the Kerry juvenile championships there and, midweek, the Kerry colleges championships were held there. Next Thursday it hosts the north Munster colleges championships and the Munster masters, junior and U23 championships on May 25.

Then there is an open sports on June 2, the Kerry primary school sports and the Munster juvenile championships followed by another open sports and the county senior championships.

"And a lot of athletes not just from Kerry and the south-west but from north Cork and west Limerick are now coming here to train," said Denis McSweeney who manages the facility.

The focus has been on Kerry athletics since the emergence of Gillian O'Sullivan on the world race walking scene. Now Eoin Leen is becoming a force in the throwing events.

The promise shown by the crop of young athletes has been highlighted by the performances of Laura Crowe, an AAA 800m champion both indoors and outdoors; sprinter Tony Barnett; Denis Finnegan, who runs 400m hurdles and Peter Shalloe who competes over 110m hurdles. All are expected to be named on the Irish team for the European Youth Olympics in Paris.

"However, we badly need a clubhouse and we have plans for a gym, leisure centre, sauna and steam room," Denis McSweeney said.

The Evening Echo South Munster Schools Championships get under way at the CIT track in Cork on Saturday. The final session will be at the same venue on Saturday week with the Munster Schools Championships scheduled for May 25.