Shinkins keeps up sharp form

Karen Shinkins continued to sharpen her form for the upcoming World Indoor Championships by easily defending her national indoors 400 metres title in Nenagh yesterday.

Shinkins is fast putting her Olympic disappointment behind her and having already achieved the qualifying mark for the world tests in Lisbon next month, selection is now a formality for the Dublin City Harriers athlete.

Fresh from a productive stay at her new training base in Atlanta, she made sure that the race was over shortly after the gun. Cruising unrivalled to the finish, she clocked 53.70 seconds - giving her more than three seconds to spare over runner-up Jennifer McKenna from St Brigid's (56.87).

The sprint finals provided most of the highlights over the weekend. Ciara Sheehy is chasing selection over the 200 metres for the World Indoors and her successful sprint double will go a long way towards impressing the selectors.

Like last year, Sheehy was a class apart when winning both the 60 metres and 200 metres titles. The shorter sprint was won in 7.67 seconds, with Derval O'Rourke taking second in 7.76 before coming back to achieve a double of her own when winning the 60 metres hurdles.

In the 200 metres, Martina McCarthy managed to put up the best challenge but again Sheehy was a comfortable winner at the finish. Her winning time was 24.38 seconds, while McCarthy, her Dublin City Harriers team-mate and also a member of the Irish relay team at the Sydney Olympics, clocked 24.61.

The men's sprints were more keenly contested, with John McAdorey a close winner of the 60 metres in 6.94 seconds, while last year's winner Donal McCarthy could only manage third (7.05). Paul Opperman kept up a winning trend for Dublin City Harriers when taking the 200 metres in 22.07.

Not surprisingly, the only national records to fall in Nenagh came in the walks. Gillian O'Sullivan hasn't slowed down since finishing 10th at the Sydney Olympics and yesterday the Kerrywoman improved her own 3 km indoor record for the second successive weekend, winning in 12 minutes 20.62 seconds.

Fellow Olympian Robert Heffernan also arrived after a record-breaking feat at the British AAA Championhsips last weekend and ended up improving his indoor 5 km mark. The Togher athlete finished in 19:12.31, and that left some significant daylight between him and second-placed Jamie Costin (20:28.67). Colin Griffin was also rewarded with a national junior record when taking the junior title in 21:01.41.

The middle distance events were marked by a notable double for Freda Davoran of UCC. She had significant margins when winning both the 800 metres (2:09.85) and the 1,500 metres (4:22.01) and she too is on course for selection for Lisbon.

The men's events didn't produce such quality times but Liam Reale of Limerick AC made a quick jump from the junior ranks to take his first senior title, winning a tactical 1,500 metres in 3:57.12 - just a stride ahead of UCD's Eoin Cummins (3:57.39).

Gary Murray of St Malachy's AC also continued his impressive path out of the junior ranks when taking the 3,000 metres in 8:31.59.