Davoren relaunches career with fine third in Balmoral

FREDA DAVOREN relaunched her athletics career in style when she finished third behind Kelly Holmes, the Commonwealth 1,500m champion, and Helen Clitheroe in the Event Scotland Mile at Balmoral.

The almost-forgotten Killarney athlete, who made a huge splash in Irish athletics while still studying at UCC where her coach was former international Ray Shanahan bounced back after a long struggle with a hamstring problem.

Freda had not run a competitive race since she was forced to pull out of the national inter-counties cross-country championships in Dungarvan, in December of 2001, and she spent all of last year on physiotherapy.