Drama & Medals at the Irish Track & Field Championships

Northern sprint athletes confirmed their pre-race sprint favourite status with convincing wins in the Woodie's Irish Senior Athletics Championships at Santry, Dublin.

In the 100 metres City of Derry's Jason Smyth was never headed in what was for him a relatively modest 10.50 secs. The Paralympic champion who left immediately to Portugal will be keeping his fingers crossed that he will be selected on the Irish team to be named tomorrow for the World Championships in Korea in 3 weeks time. Jason has a "B" standard time of 10.22 secs.

Lisburn AC's Amy Foster enjoyed a double victory in the 100 metres (11.68 secs) and 200 metres (23.74 secs). The Bangor woman said she had hoped for a faster 100 metres time as she had equalled the NI record at this venue a month ago. She now leaves for the World Student Games in China later this month.

There was drama in the Women's 800 metres where Lisburn AC's Ciara Mageean made it clear from the gun that she was out to prove a point following her defeat over 1500 metres in the European Junior Champs.

She stormed off from the gun and blasted through 400 metres in 57.5 secs with only Riocht's Laura Crowe for company. However, both girls tied up badly in the home straight with Mageean's exhaustion causing her to stumble and literally fall over the finish line.This left the path clear for a shocked Siobhan Eviston of Raheny to take victory in a PB of 2.06.69 which was some 0.16 secs ahead of a bitterly disappointed Mageean.

However the Portaferry woman showed true grit some 2 hours later when she took on a classy field in the 1500 metres. With 5 women in contention on the final lap Ciara dug deep to hold off Irish steeplechaser Stephanie Reilly to take victory by a mere 0.07secs in a season's best of 4.16.36. Ciara said she was delighted especially after the nightmare of the 800 metres.

North Down's Ben Reynolds was in a class of his own in the high hurdles when he took the title in a fast 14.05 secs. He said he was happy with his performance considering that an old ligament injury had hampered his preparations and prevented him from competing in the previous weekend's AAA's Championships.

There were easy wins for Newcastle's Kerry Harty in the steeplechase in 10.23.29 and UU's Adam McMullan in the long jump (7.26 metres). Aaron Crawford (Strabane Track Club) also won gold in the Javelin with 63.27m, well ahead of 2nd placed 56.43m.

Silver medallists included Ballymena's Clare Wilkinson in the pole vault (3.80 metres) and Jason Harvey of UU who take an amazing 4 secs off his PB to record 50.65 secs. The race was won by Ferrybank's Thomas Barr in an Irish Junior record of 50.06 secs.

Ballymena's Dean Adams took bronze in the 100 metres in 10.89 secs and Alan Kennedy bronze in the Triple Jump in 14.16m. City of Derry's Mary Devlin was third in the Triple Jump with 11.50m. Paul Pollock was 6th in the 5000m (14.40.09), Ed McGinley 8th (14.40.60) and Andrew Agnew 10th (14.50.19). Greg Roberts was 6th in the 10,000m (30.55.75). Andrew Doyle threw 14.36m in the Shot for 4th place. Stephen Kerr was 2nd in the Juior 3000m (8.46.79).

Paul Hession produced the performance of the championships to win the men's 200m in 20.51, achieving the A qualification standard for both the World Championships and next year's Olympic Games. Some sprint videoshave been uploaded to Facebook.

Check out AAI site for full results.