ATHLETICS: Despite fine individual victories from Gary Ryan and Robert Connolly, the Irish senior men fell just short of promotion in their European Cup second league, which concluded in Aarhus, Denmark, yesterday. Ian O'Riordan reports.

For a long time it appeared they had done enough to finish in the top two of the eight competing nations by winning three individual track races over the two days, both relays, and also securing five runner-up positions. Yet Austria upset their ambitions with a late surge to take the second of the two promotion places behind Switzerland.

At one point Austria had closed to within a point of Ireland when they won the steeplechase, in which Ireland's Eugene O'Neill faded to last. Ryan then produced a class run over 200 metres, and immediately afterwards came Connolly's glory in a tactical 3,000 metres to edge Ireland four points in front.

In the remaining field events, however, Austria took maximum points in the javelin and scored heavily in the pole vault and triple jump, where the Irish struggled to make an impression.

Yet the overall men's performance was far better than that of the Irish women, who were relegated after finishing seventh of the eight nations in the, admittedly higher, first league.

The highlights were an under-23 record for Derval O'Rourke in the 100 metres hurdles, and a national hammer record for Eileen O'Keeffe.

For Ryan and Connolly, the victories proved their great battling qualities. Ryan held off Austria's Sergey Osovic to win the 200 metres in 21 seconds flat, and in the 3,000 metres the young Connolly displayed great maturity in delivering a searing finish over the last 300 metres to take another Austrian scalp in Martin Proll, who had led from the start - the winning time 8.12.52.

But with Terry McHugh sixth in the javelin, the two promotion places were in fact decided before the 4x400 metres relay.

Still, the Irish went out on a winning note with David McCarthy (the individual winner) outkicking Swiss 800 metre specialist Andre Bucher to lead home the Irish in 3.08.94.

The women's chances, meanwhile, had been greatly hit by several below-par performances, with Karen Shinkins running disappointingly when she trailed home in seventh place in the 400 metres in a puzzling 56.34.

Things improved marginally when O'Keeffe added 36 centimetres to her hammer record with 61.46 metres, while UCD student O'Rourke broke her Irish under-23 record in the 100 metres hurdles with a first-class 13.19 in finishing third.

In Florence, France won their first European Cup men's title yesterday as defending champions and overnight leaders Britain slipped back into third place behind Germany.

And Russia's women maintained their series of victories that stretches back to 1997, comfortably defeating Germany, while France finished third.

The French men, who started the second day of competition in second place, quickly seized the lead. 110m hurdler Ladji Doucoure gave them the perfect start, winning his final in 13.55, just ahead of Germany's Mike Fenner.

Britain's representative, Andy Turner - competing in the event that Colin Jackson had dominated during the 1990s - finished fifth.

The British men were further weakened by the enforced absences of injured triple jumper Jonathan Edwards and javelin specialist Steve Backley.

Doucoure's compatriots Fouad Chouki and Florent Lacasse maintained France's momentum with impressive performances in the 3,000 metres and 800 metres respectively.

While Chouki handled the hot track conditions at the Luigi Ridolfi stadium to triumph in 8.22.56, Lacasse hung on in his race to cross the line as runner-up behind Antonio Reina of Spain.

Victory in the closing 4x400 metres relay and a second place by 200 metres runner Christian Malcolm provided the bright spots of the day for the defending champions.

Finally, UK Athletics president Lynn Davies has insisted the association was comfortable with the appointment of Ekkert Arbeit.

The controversial former East German specialist has been employed by coach Frank Dick to improve the performances of heptathlete Denise Lewis.

Arbeit was involved in the illegal use of drugs that gained the German Democratic Republic massive success on the world stage prior to reunification.

He has been granted accreditation to a meeting in Estonia in two weeks as 30-year-old Lewis seeks to raise her performances in the throwing disciplines.

Former Olympic long jump champion Davies stressed Lewis was being treated no differently to any other British athlete.

He said: "We understand the concerns and perceptions but Jonathan (Edwards) made a good point. He said it is now 14 years since the demise of the eastern European countries and obviously, with a Christian-like approach, it's now time to move on. It's time for rehabilitation rather than recrimination."