Carroll sets sights on Irish two-mile

Mark Carroll will have his final race before the World Championships in Seville when he runs over the two-mile distance at the British Grand Prix in London's Crystal Palace this afternoon.

The race has been billed as yet another world record attempt by the classy Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie, who will attack the current mark of seven minutes 58.61 seconds set by Daniel Komen of Kenya two years ago.

Carroll, meanwhile, proved that he's back to his best when he lowered his own Irish 3,000 metres record by just over three seconds to 7:30.36 in Monaco on Wednesday night. That made him the sixth fastest in the world this year over the distance and, more significantly, the second fastest European of all time. It also correlates to roughly 8:05 over two miles and means that the 11 year-old Irish two-mile record of 8:17.78, held by Frank O'Mara, should be well within Carroll's reach on this occasion.

Susan Smith-Walsh will also conclude her preparations for the world championships by running the 400 metres hurdles today. She has cut short her racing schedule in an effort to arrive in Seville fresh and, like Carroll, will bypass the last major Grand Prix before the World Championships, the Weltklasse in Zurich next Wednesday evening. "I don't need the stress of a major Grand Prix," she said yesterday. "The training has been going extremely well and I want to keep it all for Seville."

Elsewhere, Niall Bruton will make a last gasp effort to reach the 1,500 metres standard for Seville of 3:36.80 when he runs over the distance at an IAAF permit meeting in Hectal. Peter Coghlan will also have his last run there over the 110 metres hurdles with hopes of yet more improvement on his Irish record of 13.35.

Meanwhile, Emily Maher and Ciara Sheehy will ensure dual Irish interest in the 200 metres final in the European Junior Athletics championships at Riga today.

Maher broke 24 seconds for the first time in her career yesterday when qualifying with a time of 23.66 secs, the third fastest of the day. Sheehy's qualifying time was 23.88 secs.

Earlier, Maher had recorded a career best time of 11.72 secs in the 100 metres final but still had to settle for fourth. There was mixed luck for the two St Malachy's runners, Conor Sweeney and Colm McLean, in the heats of the 1,500 metres. While McLean finished some way off the pace, Sweeney went through to tomorrow's final by finishing third in his heat in a time of three minutes 48.1 secs.