Gillick ruled out of Santry

ATHLETICS News: A persistent lower back injury means David Gillick won't be competing at this weekend's National Championships in Santry, and instead will make every effort to get himself right for next month's World Championships in Helsinki.

Gillick underwent an MRI scan yesterday morning in order to get a more thorough diagnosis of the problem, while continuing to get daily physiotherapy.

He will also see another back specialist on Monday, at which point he's likely to have a better idea about whether he'll make it to Helsinki - where the championship begin in two weeks' time.

It's almost a month now since the problem first flared up, and ultimately forced Gillick's withdrawal from last weekend's 400 metres final at the European Under-23 Championships in Germany: "It's important now that I try to get it right as soon as I can, rather than make it worse," said Gillick.

"It's very frustrating to have to miss out on the championships, but I haven't been able to train all week, and there's no point in taking any more chances now unless I'm 100 per cent."

Gillick does have the B standard for Helsinki thanks to his 45.93 clocking in Turin last month, but each nation is limited to one B-standard athlete per event.

Tomas Coman also has the required time from last year, and is due to run this weekend. It remains to be seen, however, if Coman wants to go forward for selection as he has missed the early part of the season through injury.

Coman is more likely to target the World Student Games in Izmir, Turkey, later next month - where along with Gillick he has already been selected to run.

The full Irish team for those Games were announced yesterday, and consists of 82 athletes across eight sports; a women's soccer team, a men's soccer team, a women's basketball team, one sailor, one fencer, two taekwondo athletes, four swimmers and 22 track and field athletes.

Together they represent 43 third level institutions, including 19 overseas colleges.

The Games are held every two years, and run from August 11th to the 21st - featuring over 9,000 athletes from over 170 countries.

Chef de Mission is Mickey Whelan of Dublin City University .

Several Irish athletes produced encouraging performances on the opening day of the European Junior championships, which are taking place in Kaunas, Lithuania. Richie Yates of Raheny took ninth in the 10,000 metres, while Ann Loughnane took sixth in the 10km walk in a new Irish junior record of 48:21.71. Eoin Everard also qualified for the semi-finals of the 800 metres.

IRISH ATHLETICS TEAM FOR WORLD UNIVERSITY GAMES: P Hession 200m (NUI Galway), D Gillick 400m, 400m relay (DIT), M Christie 1,500m (DCU), J McAllister 10,000m (Providence), C Griffin 20km walk (UL), V Mulvey Half marathon (Providence), T Coman 400m relay (UL), R Daly 400m relay (Institute of Accountancy), G Kennedy 400m relay (Athlone IT), A Boyle 100m, 200m, 100m relay (UU Jordanstown), J Cuddihy 400m, 400m relay (UCD), J Byrne 1,500m (Institute of Accountancy), R McGettigan 3km steeplechase (Providence), F Britton 1,500m (DCU), Mary Cullen 5/10km walk (Providence), E O'Keeffe Hammer (Athlone IT), D O'Rourke 100m hurdles, 100m relay (UCD), M Carey 400m hurdles (Loughborough University), J Shannon Half marathon (Aberdeen), A McSweeney 100m, 100m relay (UCC), F O'Friel 100m, 400m relay (UCD), E McCaffrey 400m relay (UU Jordanstown), Head Coach: P McGonagle, Ass Coach: Ms K Ryan, Ass Coach: Ms T McDaid.