A brilliant run in the early morning sunshine in the Nepstadion yesterday confirmed James McIlroy as Ireland's brightest 800 metres prospect in years.

The 21-year-old Larne runner goes into this evening's semi-finals with a significant number of new admirers after winning the second of five heats from Italy's Giuseppe D'Urso, easing down, in 1 minute 46.81 seconds.

Only two of the 34 athletes in action in the heats, Nils Schumann of Germany and Denmark's world champion Wilson Kipketer, ran faster but it was less the victory than the manner in which it was achieved which attracted the uncommitted.

Taking charge from the start, Mcllroy dictated the tactics and the tempo throughout and when the experienced Russian Sergey Kozhevnikov threatened to baulk him at one point he was quickly shifted.

That was the mark of an athlete, strong and wise beyond his years and when the pace needed to be lifted on the last lap, he accelerated so smoothly that the remainder were caught stranded.

In summary, it was a vastly impressive performance, good enough to move some British officials to anguish as they reflected on their hesitancy in awarding McIlroy an international singlet before he aligned himself with Ireland.

Some would say that in that, there is an element of justice for when these championships were last held in Budapest, in 1966, a Limerick man, Jim Hogan, won the marathon for Britain.

To suggest that Mclroy will beat Kipketer and take the title is clearly absurd at this stage of their respective careers. But on the evidence of yesterday's run, he has the ability to survive this evening's semi-finals and possibly challenge for a medal.

"At the moment, I'm content to take it a race at a time but, yes, I believe I'm good enough to be in the final," he said. "I decided that the best way to run the race was from the front and that may have surprised some of the other runners.

"I'm aware that I'll have to go faster to make the finals but I'll do it. Unlike the others, I was new to this level of competition but with this experience behind me, I don't fear anybody in my next race.".

Ireland's other two representatives, James Nolan and David Matthews, are also into the semi-finals, although Matthews only got through as one of the fastest losers after tying up in the last 40 metres in the heat won by Nathan Kahan of Belgium.

Nolan, by contrast, was only touched off on the line by Lukas Vydra of the Czech Republic in a time of 1 min 48.20 secs in the last heat. It was a relatively relaxed run by the UCD athlete and yet he needed some time to recover at the finish.

Terry McHugh's decline as a top class international competitor was conveyed in a best throw of 72.8 metres in the javelin but Nick Sweeney is hoping for better things when he reports for the start of the discus championship today.

Peter Coghlan was an early casualty in the 110 metres hurdles, going out after a disappointing time of 14.00 secs in the heat dominated by the German, Falk Balzer.

The last of the Irish athletes in action in these championships will be Mark Carroll, who goes in the final of the men's 5,000 metres this evening. At his best, he could figure prominently but, ominously, there are six other runners in the field with faster times than his seasonal best of 13:20.82.

One of them is Dieter Baumann, a former Olympic champion who took the bronze medal in the 10,000 metres, but the more obvious threats are the three Spaniards, Alberto Garcia, Manuel Pancorbo and Isaac Viciosa, all of whom have run under 13 mins 10 secs in recent weeks.