Elite 'micro-meet' gives Irish track stars last chance to impress before European Championships

Limited to those tracking towards either the European Indoors next month or this summer’s Olympic Games, it’s a highly select cluster of elite athletes who have been granted government approval to compete

Sarah Lavin on her way to winning the Women's 100m Hurdles event, during the Irish Life Health National Senior Track & Field Championships in 2017. Lavin is among the elite athletes cometing this weekend. Picture: Tomás Greally/Sportsfile

For some Irish athletes, this is the last stop on the road to next month’s European Indoors. For others it’s merely the beginning, an opportunity to blow off the competitive cobwebs after many months of training hibernation, waiting patiently for a race on home soil.

This weekend’s Irish Life Health elite micro-meet in Abbotstown will see the first athletics action in several months in the Republic, with more than 60 top athletes ready to run, jump and throw during two days of action at the Sport Ireland national indoor arena.