NENAGH'S Neil Ryan gave himself the perfect boost for next weekend's Europa Cup in Santry, when he smashed the Irish 100 metres record by one tenth of a second, recording a time of 10.46 seconds in an international meet in Riga last night.

The previous mark of 10.56 seconds had stood for almost a year to the credit of his Nenagh clubmate Gary Ryan. Last night Neil Ryan finished second to the Latvian Sergey Inshakov, who won in a time of 10.43 seconds.

The Latvian denied the former 100 metre record holder Gary Ryan over 200 metres when he returned a time of 20.83 seconds as against 21.06 for the Irishman.

There were several other promising performances by Irish athletes. Terry McHugh showed a return to his best form in the javelin with 76.56 metres, but he was a long way behind Britain's Steve Backley, who won with 89.02. James Nolan recorded a personal best of 1.47.06 seconds for the 800 metres when finishing fourth behind the Olympic champion, Vebjorn Rodal of Norway.