Irish team members to fine tune for Helsinki

Athletics Dublin International meetingTomorrow's Dublin International meeting in Santry will provide a final tune-up for at least half the Irish team heading to the World Championships in Helsinki next week. One of those not competing is David Gillick, who has returned to training after recovering from a lower-back injury, but will continue to take a cautious route to his 400 metres event in Helsinki.

Gillick was included among the 12-strong Irish team earlier this week, and was considering running tomorrow as a final fitness test ahead of Helsinki. Instead the Dundrum athlete will pack in as much training as he can over the weekend rather than risk any recurrence of the injury.

"I've had two light sessions on the track this week and the injury has definitely responded well to treatment," he explained. "I just want to get myself to Helsinki in the best shape I can . . . It will be my first world championships as an individual, and the one race I've wanted to run all year."

Paul Hession, who was selected over 200 metres for Helsinki, will test himself in tomorrow's meeting having been sidelined in recent weeks by a similar lower-back injury. He will renew his rivalry with Gary Ryan and Paul Brizzel, with German sprinter Fredrik Helmke, who has run 20.50 seconds this season, among the overseas entries.

Derval O'Rourke (100 metre hurdles) and Peter Coghlan (110 metre hurdles) will also be looking for winning send-offs to Helsinki, as will Eileen O'Keeffe in the hammer, while Maria McCambridge drops down from 5,000 metres to 1,500 metres.

James Nolan will be the last of the Helsinki-bound athletes in action when he looks to defend his Morton Mile title. Among those lining up beside Nolan will be Colin Costello, who last Sunday became Ireland's first European Junior champion over 1,500 metres.

Costello's time last week of three minutes 45.25 seconds will leave him a little shy of the four-minute barrier when transferred to a mile time, but that's his target for tomorrow. If the 19-year-old does succeed he will become only the 40th Irish athlete to run the four-minute mile.

Both Nolan and Costello will be hard pressed to win, however, with the Kenyan Elind Njubi and the American pair of Ian Dobson and Ryan Hall among the 10 other entries who have already dipped under four minutes. Tomorrow's meeting starts at 3.30.

Meanwhile, Athletics Ireland has finally advertised for the position of chief executive. Funding for the position was agreed with the Irish Sports Council under the new strategic plan for Irish athletics.