ATHLETICS News round-up: The AAA championships in Sheffield over the weekend were billed as the British trials for the European Indoor championships, but they turned out to be equally indicative of the good form of Irish athletes heading to Madrid in two weeks.

The most exciting of those was David Gillick, who last night won his first AAA's title. The 21-year-old Dubliner left his five opponents trailing in the final to win in 46.46 seconds, three hundredths of a second short of the personal best he set in his semi-final on Saturday.

Gillick now goes to Madrid with the fastest time by a European this season and as an obvious medal contender.

He'll be joined there by other medal hopes, including Paul Hession in the 200 metres. The Galway athlete took the AAA's title when knocking more than a tenth of a second off his previous best, to win the final in a time of 21.01 seconds.

Also making an impact were Cork women Ailis McSweeney and Derval O'Rourke, who both set new national records. McSweeney finished third in the final of the 60 metres in a time of 7.37 seconds, and in doing so finally eclipsed the long-standing figure of 7.38 set 12 years ago by Michelle Carroll. The gold medal went to Janette Kwakye in 7.27, with Emily Maher sixth in 7.50.

O'Rourke finished third in the final of the women's 60 metres hurdles in 8.06 seconds, breaking her own national mark of 8.12. The gold went to Sarah Claxton in 7.96 seconds, a British record.

Dierdre Ryan cleared 1.87 metres in the high jump for second place, while James Nolan also fell just short of the 1,500 metres title - out-kicked by Neil Speaight in 3:45.89 to Nolan's time 3:46.04. Irish junior Colin Costello was seventh in 3:48.82.

Ciara Sheehy earned her ticket to the Europeans with a qualifying time of 23.76 for third in the 200 metres final, and the weekend started with Taneisha Robinson breaking her own Irish triple jump record when she won the title with 13.21 metres.

In the US, Alistair Cragg enjoyed a classy win over 3,000 metres at the Tyson Invitational in Arkansas. Cragg held off Ethiopia's Markos Geneti to win in 7:40.53, while Mark Carroll took third in 7:46.78.