Shinkins quick to get out of the blocks

Athletics News: Several athletes whose grant aid was withdrawn by the Irish Sports Council have shown promising form as the new track season commences. Karen Shinkins ran her fastest 400 metres in three years when winning at the Fortaleza meeting in Brazil on Wednesday night, her time of 51.99 seconds well inside the B-standard for the World Championships in Helsinki.

Shinkins was among the former championship medal winners to be told they were no longer going to receive financial support, and despite appealing that decision, the 28-year-old has been left without grant aid for the coming year.

Rather than get downhearted Shinkins is approaching the new season with renewed vigour, not entirely unmotivated by the lack of faith shown by the Sports Council.

Last Sunday she finished second in the Rio de Janeiro Grand Prix in 52.06, her best start to the outdoor season. She'll complete her early season tour of South America by running the Grand Prémio Brasil in Belém this Sunday, and then return to her American base in Atlanta to plan a more serious assault on her Irish record of 51.09, which has stood now since 1999.

According to her coach Paul Doyle, who she will marry later this year, Shinkins deliberately skipped the indoor season for the first time in her career, and that's already proving a cunning move.

"Karen is running very well at the moment," said Doyle, "and hopefully, she'll just keep chipping away over the coming weeks. But she's definitely stronger and fresher than she's ever been after missing the indoor season."

The Kildare athlete already has the B-standard for Helsinki with her 52.15 clocking of last summer, and Athletics Ireland have announced they will be accepting those standards for the World Championships, which run from August 6th-14th.

Mark Carroll was another of the high-profile athletes to be told his time was up, and like Shinkins, had his grant aid cut from €19,100 to zero.

He won the Providence 5km road race last Sunday in 14 minutes 18 seconds, and this Sunday runs the Central Park 10km in New York as part of his preparations to attack the 10,000-metre qualifying time for Helsinki. His first track race will be over two miles at the Prefontaine Classic in Oregon on June 4th, where he'll have double Olympic champion Hicham El Guerrouj for company.

There was also real encouragement for the athlete who finished second to Carroll in Providence with exactly the same time - Keith Kelly. A former winner of the American Collegiate cross country title, Kelly has been riddled with injury problems over the past three years but has finally got himself back into competitive running.

The 27-year-old has also had his grant aid withdrawn.

Ciarán McDonagh had also dropped way off the radar since making the 1999 World Championship final in the long jump when he became the first Irish athlete to clear eight metres. But he too has shown some promising form after some recent training stints with America's Olympic champion Dwight Phillips, and has jumped 7.65 and 7.72 metres over the last two weeks.

It now appears likely that Sonia O'Sullivan will also target the World Championships later this summer having announced her participation in the Cork City Sports on July 2nd.

She twice ran inside the A-standard for the 5,000 metres last year, but is almost certain to chance her luck in the 10,000 metres as she returns to the hard training after last month's London marathon.

The first domestic meeting of the year takes place on Sunday when the newly-developed Irishtown track in Ringsend hosts the AAI Games, which has a 1.0 start.

Robert Heffernan and Olive Loughnane will lead the teams at tomorrow's European Race Walking Cup in Miskolc, Hungary, which Gillian O'Sullivan has been forced to miss because of the after-effects of the back injury which ruled her out of the Athens Olympics.