Hession does sprint double in Greece

ATHLETICS:What was meant to be a big weekend for the three biggest names of Irish athletics was instead all about the performance of another man, as Paul Hession took arguably the most cherished national record of all.

Running at Saturday's Kalamata meeting in Greece, Hession won the 100 metres in 10.28 seconds, comfortably dipping under the previous Irish record of 10.35 - which had been jointly held by Gary Ryan and Paul Brizzel.

It was a brilliant performance by the Galway athlete in what was his first outdoor race of the year.

He was judged to have beaten Ricardo Williams of Jamaica, though he was also given 10.28, while the Italian Francesco Scuderi took third in 10.57.

As if that weren't enough, Hession returned later in the evening to win the 200 metres in 20.67 seconds, close to his personal best of 20.56. It means he now has the world championship A standard for the both the 100 and 200 metres, and is clearly in the form to run quicker still as the season progresses. Hession will next race in Stavanger, Norway, on June 13th.

Derval O'Rourke had intended opening her outdoor season soon but a minor injury sustained in training late last week has forced her to put plans on hold.

David Gillick did have his first outdoor 400 metres of 2007, although that clearly didn't go to plan. Running at yesterday's Glasgow International he could only manage seventh place in 46.33 seconds.

A minor Achilles tendon injury had briefly interrupted Gillick's training in recent weeks.

Alistair Cragg, after two excellent runs in recent weeks, dropped out of the 5,000 metres at Saturday's New York Grand Prix meeting. The stifling heat and humidity made for very difficult conditions.