Cragg among favourites for Madrid medal

Brendan Mooney

Ireland’s newest athletics sensation beat the world and Olympic 10,000m champion Kenenisa Bekele at the Boston Indoor Games on Saturday night. Cragg’s time, 7:39.89, is the fastest in the world this season.

“My focus this year is on the European indoor championships and the world championships in Helsinki next summer,” he said after the victory. “I will not be running cross-country.”

International secretary Liam Hennessy welcomed Cragg’s decision to run in Madrid and is confident that he can capture a medal. “It is going to be good for his profile and for the profile of Irish athletics. His run on Saturday night was just phenomenal and Mark Carroll was a revelation once again. It shows that the Corkman still has a lot ahead of him now that he has overcome the problem with his injury.”

Ailis McSweeney booked her ticket for Madrid on what was a memorable weekend for the young Leevale sprinter. She missed the standard by one hundredth of a second with a 7.41 run in Budapest on Friday and was within fractions of Michelle Carroll’s Irish record with a 7.39 in Bratislava.

Emily Maher clocked 7.42 in Budapest and again in Bratislava and appears a certainty to qualify over the coming weeks.

Three 400m runners all ran inside the qualifying standard in Birmingham at the weekend. David Gillic, who already had the standard, ran a new pb of 47.14 sec in the semi-finals but suffered a slight injury and withdrew from the final as a precaution. David McCarthy ran 47.41 in the semi-final and then won the final in 47.32. Rob Daly ran 47.57 to claim his place in the Europeans.

Paul Hession had the qualifying standard for 200m with 21.12 sec in Birmingham while Gary Ryan and Ciara Sheehy were outside the mark.

Derval O’Rourke qualified for the 60m hurdles on her first outing of the season, showing further improvement with two runs of 8.12 in Budapest and Bratislava. She won in Budapest on Friday but Britain’s Diane Allahgreen reversed the result in Slovakia on Sunday.

Paul Brizzel was close to his best in the 60m in Bratislava where he clocked 6.78 sec, ahead of Jer O’Donoghue’s seasonal best of 6.79 sec.

Taneisha Scanlon set an Irish women’s triple jump record of 13.21m in Budapest on Friday and equalled it in Bratislava on Sunday. All will be in action again at the national indoor championships in Nenagh next weekend.