Irish figure prominently in global lists

ATHLETICS:Irish athletes have made an unusually strong impression on the IAAF end-of-year rankings based on outdoor performances throughout 2007.

The top-50 list is compiled for most IAAF-approved events and includes 14 Irish athletes across an impressive range of events.

Seven of those are ranked in the top 20, including Eileen O'Keeffe, the 13th-best women's hammer thrower of 2007 based on her Irish record of 73.21, and Robert Heffernan, ranked 15th in the 20-kilometre walk with his season's best of 1:20:15.

For the first time an Irishman has made the top 20 in the 200 metres, thanks to Paul Hession's national record of 20.30 seconds.

Joanne Cuddihy (16th in the 400 metres), Róisín McGettigan (13th in the 3,000-metre steeplechase) and Colin Griffin (19th in the 50-kilometre walk) also make the top 20 in their disciplines.

The highest-ranked Irish athlete is Alistair Cragg, his 7:32.49 over 3,000 metres being the third-fastest of 2007 - behind only Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele (7:25.79) and Uganda's Moses Kipsoro (7:32.03).

Although the 3,000 metres is not a championship event outdoors, Cragg is also ranked in three further distances (1,500, 5,000 and 10,000 metres), which underlines how disappointing was his run at the World Championships in Osaka, where he failed to get out of his qualifying heat of the 5,000 metres.

In addition, O'Keeffe and Heffernan have made the top-10 lists in two of the sport's most respected publications - Britain's Athletics International and America's Track and Field News.

O'Keeffe and Heffernan are ranked ninth in Athletics International, hardly surprising given they both finished sixth at the World Championships in Osaka, while Track and Field News - still known as the bible of the sport - has ranked Heffernan ninth in the 20km walk, and O'Keeffe 10th in the hammer.

n Damien Bateman, the latest in a string of talented distance runners to emerge from Mullingar, Co Westmeath, called on his stamina to telling effect to win the Tommy Brennan Memorial road race in the Phoenix Park yesterday.

The 25-year-old, a PhD student at the University of New Mexico, stretched away from the field in the last 800 metres to win the five-kilometre event comfortably in 14 minutes 57 seconds.

He showed pace when needed at the finish to draw clear and win by some seven seconds from Richie Corcoran of Raheny.

David Rooney, also Raheny, took third in 15:07.

There was consolation for Raheny when they supplied the first home in the women's race, the ever consistent Annette Kealy winning comfortably in 17:31 from Lorraine Manning of Civil Service.

Details in SPORTS ROUND-UP

20th200m20.30Paul HessionDublin July 21st

26th400m45.23David Gillick Geneva June 9th

49th800m1:46.05David CampbellLignano July 15th

45th1500m3:36.18Alistair CraggCarson May 20th3rd3000m7:32.49Alistair CraggMonacoJuly 25th

20th5000m13:07.10Alistair CraggBrasschaatJuly 21st

42nd10,000m27:39.55Alistair CraggStanfordApril 29th

15th20k walk1:20:15Robert HeffernanLeamingtonMay 20th

19th50k walk3:51:32Colin GriffinDudince March 24th

29th50k walk3:53:30Jamie CostinLeamington May 20th

16th400m50.73Joanne CuddihyOsaka August 27th

26th3000m8:48.17Mary CullenSheffieldJuly 15th13th3000s/c9:28.29Róisín McGettiganHeusdenJuly 28th

38th3000s/c9:41.36F BrittonHeusdenJuly 28th

24th100mH12.88Derval O'RourkeBochumJuly 18th

13thHammer73.21Eileen O'KeeffeDublinJuly 21st

49th20k walk1:32:25O LoughnaneFerreiraMarch 2nd