Four out of Tallin races

Four athletes have pulled out of the Irish international team for a meeting in Tallinn, Estonia next Friday.

Tom Conan and Freda Davoren have exam commitments, with Elaine Fitzgerald of Waterford replacing Davoren in the 800 metres. Antoine Burke will miss the high jump through injury and Michael Allen of Ballymena will replace Terry McHugh in the javelin.

BLE yesterday announced that Mazda would again sponsor the National Track and Field League. More than 60 teams are to compete in the preliminary rounds, with the top eight men's and women's teams contesting the final on August 9th.

Round one will be held on Sunday 28th of June in Derry, Santry and Waterford and round two will be held on July 21st at Tullamore, Santry and Waterford.

Tullamore will host the final, with £2,600 to be distributed among the top three teams in the men's and women's sections.

Haile Gebrselassie has promised to attack the 5000 metres world record at the Grand Prix II meeting in Helsinki tonight.

The Ethiopian smashed the 10,000m record by five seconds in Hengelo two weeks ago, with a time of 26 minutes 22.75 seconds. He now has his sights on the 12:39.74 by Daniel Koman of Kenya, who took the record from Gebrselassie in Brussels last year.