Irish champion Gary Ryan seemed set for a 100/200 metres double this afternoon after safely making it through his heats on the first day of the Universities track and Field championships at Santry.

The Olympic 200m quarter finalist, representing the University of Limerick, clocked 10.73 in the semi finals of the 100m and ran in an equally impressive time of 22.78 in the 200m.

One surprise absentee from yesterday's proceedings was 800m national champion, David Matthews, who withdrew because of flu, but there was plenty to whet the appetite with UCD's Nigel Brunton taking the 5000m final in 14 minutes 49.45 seconds.