THERE were two bright spots on an otherwise bleak day for the Irish in Atlanta yesterday. Running in the heat before that which saw Sonia O'Sullivan's misfortune, Sinead Delahuaty, the Boston based runner, qualified comfortably for the 1,500 metres semi finals.

Delahunty, from Kilkenny, is essentially a 5,000 metres runner, but having suffered a stress fracture earlier in the year, she followed the advice of physic Ger Hartmann and switched her short term focus to the 1,500 where she has enjoyed surprising success.

In yesterday's heat, she looked most comfortable, finishing in the leading group and claiming fourth place in a time of 4:10.20, less than quarter of a second behind struggling Olympic champion Hassiba Boulmerka.

More surprising from an Irish perspective was the performance of Nenagh Olympic's Gary Ryan in the heats of the 200 metres. Although eventually eliminated in the fastest heat of the second round stage, Ryan produced a personal best and national record time of 20.78 in the first round finish third and advance automatically.

I was a superb, strong run from Ryan and his time was identical to that of second placed finisher Seun Ogunkoya of Nigeria. The heat was won, not surprisingly, by Frankie Fredericks in a time of 20.59.

The strength of Ryan's challenge is best gauged by the fact that of the eighth starters, he had the second slowest reaction time, yet worked his way through the field to challenge in the final yards.

Running in the same second round heat as Linford Christie and Ato Boldon, however, Ryan could do no better than finish eighth in 20.89 seconds. He will no doubt have gained consolation by the fact that Christie also exited from the 200 at the same stage.