Coaches named for international fixtures

The Athletics Association of Ireland yesterday named their coaching appointments for most of the summer's international fixtures. First on the schedule is Saturday's European Race Walking Cup in the Slovakian town of Dudince, where five Irish competitors are in action.

Cork's Robert Heffernan, who last month improved the Irish 20km record to one hour 21 minutes and 11 seconds, will join Jamie Costin of Waterford in the 20km race. Kerry's Gillian O'Sullivan, who finished 10th in Sydney, will compete in the women's 20km race along with fellow Olympian Olive Loughnane of Galway. Colin Griffin goes in the junior 10km race.

The first major track fixture will be the Riga International on June 2nd. Preliminary selections for that event are Olympians Mark Howard (100 metres), Paul Brizzell (200 metres), Tomas Coman and Paul Opperman (400 metres), along with Conor Sweeney (800 metres) and Sean Lonergan (long jump).

The women's selection will be led by Emily Maher in the 100 metres, who last week opened her outdoor season in Texas with coach Linford Christie in a time of 11.63 seconds. Ciara Sheehy, who clocked 11.88 at the weekend's GV Ryan meeting in Santry, will go over 200 metres, as well as Martina McCarthy (400 metres), Aoife Byrne (800 metres), Deirdre Ryan (high jump) and Shauna Colhoun (long jump).

The AAI Games have also been set for June 2nd at the new track facility in Bangor. An English team which includes Olympic triple jump champion Jonathan Edwards will be among the international selections.

The most attractive international on Irish soil this summer is set to be Cork City Sports on July 7th - two weeks before the national championships. A major sponsor is expected to be announced this week and even though the venue has been temporarily switched from the Mardyke to the track at Cork IT, most of the leading Irish names will be there.

Sonia O'Sullivan, who is back to full training following the chest infection which ruined her world cross country ambitions, is among those certain to be there, along with Mark Carroll in the 5,000 metres.

Elsewhere, 17-year-old student Zoe Brown from Ballymena became one of the youngest ever Irish record breakers when she improved the women's pole vault record to 3.60 metres in Belfast last Saturday. Another Irish record to fall in the recent days was in the women's hammer, which Nicola Coffey improved to 58.48 metres when winning the American Collegiate Big East championships.

AAI Coaching Appointments

European Walking Cup, Slovakia (May 19): Bernie O'Callaghan; Riga International (June 2): John Sheahan, with Maeve Kyle; Moscow 2001 (June 10): John Davis, with Hayley Harrison and Stephen McGuire; Women's European Cup, Riga (June 20/24): Teresa McDaid, with Jim Kilty and Jacqui Stokes; Men's European Cup, Vaasa (June 21/25): Paddy Fay, with Ciaran Conlon; Budapest Permit (June 30/July 2): John Meagher, with Patricia Griffin and Ron Bent; Aslin Kozan (July 4): Tom Clinton, with Bart Rogers and Marita Walton; Cork City Sports (July 7): Sean Kyle, with Robert Denmead, Mary Burgoyne, Sean Naughton; European Under-23, Amsterdam (July 10-16): Neil Martin, with Joe Evans; European Junior, Grosetto (July 17-23): Peter McDermott, with Lucy Moore; Youth Olympics, Murcia (July 23-26): Emby Walsh, with Billy Delaney.