Irish U-23’s have medals on their minds

THE Irish team arrived in Bydgoszcz, Poland last night for the Euro U23s with medals on their minds.

The two leading medal hopes, Cork's Derval O'Rourke and David McCarthy from Leixlip, travelled via Italy where they competed on Sunday. O'Rourke finished second in the 100m hurdles to put a nice finishing touch to her preparations.

"Derval has a great chance of a medal," team coach John Sheehan insisted. "She has been improving all season and is going out in the right frame of mind. And I think the 4 x 100m team also has an outstanding chance of getting into the medals."

The women's sprint relay squad trained in Tullamore last week when Anna Boyle, Derval O'Rourke, Fiona O'Friel and Ailish McSweeney made the trip and, from all accounts, they were very impressive.

Race walker Colin Griffin has to be another potential medallist and David McCarthy, in his first year out of junior ranks, ran the race of his life at the BUPA Cork City Sports where he finished second in 46.48 a career best time.

Adrian O'Dwyer could be a dark horse in the high jump, while Robert Connolly certainly won't lack experience when he lines up for the men's 5,000m.

*The national senior championships take place at Morton Stadium on August 9-10 and there will be an 11am start on the second day to accommodate live television coverage of the event.One of the most popular events on the road running calendar takes place in Donoughmore, Co Cork, on Friday night when the 21st edition of the Annual Donoughmore 7 will be staged.