Cragg signals his winning intentions

ATHLETICS:It wasn't as emphatic a reminder as David Gillick produced last week but Alistair Cragg has also made it clear that he won't easily be surrendering his European Indoor title.

Cragg finished third over 3,000 metres at the US Invitational meeting at his home track at Arkansas at the weekend, his time of 7:43.30 almost 10 seconds quicker than he ran in Boston a fortnight ago.

It was his last race before heading to Birmingham in three weeks' time, and Cragg appears to be coming into the sort of form that he saw him convincingly capture the 3,000 metres crown in Madrid two years ago.

Victory on the night went to Kevin Sullivan, who produced a Canadian record of 7:40.17 in the process, but Cragg had done much of the early running, intent on clocking a fast time, and it was definitely a step in the right direction ahead of the Europeans.

Taking fifth in the same race was the former European champion at the distance, Mark Carroll, and his time of 7:52.07 was just inside the qualifying standard laid down by Athletics Ireland, although it's still unclear whether Carroll will make the team for Birmingham.

Gareth Turnbull is also eyeing a place in the 3,000 metres, although he was a little disappointed with his sixth-place finish in the mile at the same meeting, clocking 4:02.47 behind Mark Fountain's 3:55.58.

Several other Irish athletes came up with a series of very creditable performances at the British AAA Indoor Championships in Sheffield yesterday, coming away with three bronze medals in the process.

One of them went to 23-year-old David McCarthy of Kildare, third in the final of the 800 metres in a lifetime best of 1:49.51, the first time that he had broken 1:50 after moving up from the 400 metres. The title was won by James Brewer from Cheltenham in 1:49.03.

Orla Drumm also ran her best time ever indoors when finishing third in the women's 1,500 metres in a time of 4:21.12, with victory going to Katherine Wootten in 4:16.09.

And, after finishing fourth in the final of the 400 metres, Brian Doyle was promoted to third after the disqualification of the winner, Richard Buck.

Paul Hession also ran well to qualify for the final of the 60 metres, running Jason Gardiner of Britain to a hundredth of a second when finishing second in his semi-final in 6.67 seconds. A poor start destroyed his chances of making an impact in the final.

Elsewhere, another David McCarthy, from Waterford, was the class act at the Munster Schools cross country championships at St Augustine's College on Saturday, thus setting up a enticing head-to-head with Leinster champion John Coghlan in next month's All-Ireland finals.