McGUIRK of Dublin City Harriers guaranteed himself a ticket to the Atlanta Olympics with a new national record of 49.99 seconds for the 400 metre hurdles when finishing second in a race in Tucson, Arizona on Saturday night. This represents quite a breakthrough for the 25 year old San Francisco born schoolteacher qualifies to compete for Ireland through his father, who was born in Fairview in Dublin.

This new mark is an improvement of .57 of a second on the previous best which McGuirk himself set when competing in the European Championships in Helsinki two years ago. This is the first time that an Irishman has broken the magical 50 seconds for the event. McGuirk will defend his national title in Santry in mid June.

Meanwhile, thoughts of Atlanta were very much on the minds of Rob Denmark and Keith Cullen - when they lined up in the ESB 5km Classic around the streets of Dublin yesterday, and at the end of the race both expressed satisfaction with their performances.

Denmark, by virtue of his superior sprinting ability, got the verdict by a narrow margin over Cullen, with last year's winner, James Kariuki forced to settle for third, in a race won in a time of 13 minutes 30 seconds.

Noel Cullen and Seamus Power matched strides with Kariuki over the opening kilometre, but once the pace increased they drifted back, with Cullen getting up to finish fifth behind another Englishman, Adrian Passey, with Power in sixth place.

The women's race provided the expected Kenyan clean sweep, with Rose Cheruiyot edging ahead at the 2km mark to come home in 15 minutes 12 seconds, some 13 seconds ahead of Jane Ngotho and Sally Barsosio. Teresa Duffy led the challenge, but was overhauled on the run for home by Heather Heasman.