Focus falls on the Beijing bound

ATHLETICS - NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS:IN SOME ways this weekend's National Track and Field Championships in Santry act primarily as a send-off for the 13-strong Irish athletics team headed to Beijing in just a few weeks' time. But of course there are also national titles at stake, and these are never easily come by no matter what existing credentials are brought to the event.

The only pity is there aren't any true Olympic qualification issues on the line. Unlike some previous years, when B standards were still considered and thus created some nervous showdowns between those looking to seal their selection, the team is already well established - with only the remotest chance of any last-minute qualifiers.

Monday is the final cut-off date for qualifying, and the championships have never been the best place to secure fast times. Instead, it's more about those already selected proving their form and fitness, and in that sense, there is still much to look forward to.

Two Beijing-bound athletes, however, will be absent. Joanne Cuddihy is still hampered by a knee injury, and spent most of this week at Ger Hartmann's injury clinic in Limerick. Olympic team manager Patsy McGonagle is still confident she'll make her 400 metres event in Beijing, but in the meantime she's pulled from all planned races, and clearly she's in a race against time to be at her best come the big show.

Colin Griffin, who competes in the 50km walk in Beijing, will also be absent as he is training in Italy, but fellow walkers Rob Heffernan and Jamie Costin both go in the 10,000-metre walk tomorrow, with Olive Loughane in action early today in the 5,000-metre event.

Several other Beijing-bound bound athletes are moving down a distance. David Gillick will run the 200 metres instead of the 400 metres, looking to win his first title at that distance, while Paul Hession will run only the 100 metres - eyeing his Irish record of 10.18 seconds in the process.

In Gillick's absence, the 400 metres looks likely to fall to either Paul McKee or Gordon Kennedy, although both are sure to face a strong challenge from rising junior star Brian Gregan, a finalist at the recent World Junior Championships. Derval O'Rourke is seeking a seventh national 100-metre hurdles title, and while no one should deny her that, she'll also want to get under 13 seconds.

The competition gets under way at noon today with the woman's hammer, where last year Eileen O'Keeffe produced her series of record performances, climaxing with a best of 73.21 metres. She'll want to get close to that distance as Beijing fast approaches, and the fact is she hasn't been in such good form of late.

Marathon-qualifier Martin Fagan is set to run the 10,000 metres later this afternoon, possibly doubling up in the 5,000 tomorrow, while David Campbell - who last year pulled off a special 800-1,500 metre double for the first time since Eamonn Coghlan in 1981 - is again chasing double gold, and just maybe, maybe, that elusive Olympic qualifier.

Alistair Cragg, who competed over 3,000 metres in the Paris Golden League meeting last night, is also set to compete, most likely in the 1,500 metres - with a possible bye in the final.