Hession third in season best in London

ATHLETICS: PAUL HESSION has once again underlined his consistency ahead of next month's World Championships in Berlin with another quality run over 200 metres at Crystal Palace, London, on Saturday, coming home a strong third in 20.40 seconds, his fastest time of the year.

Only in the last 20 metres did the top American, Wallace Spearmon, manage to get up and beat the Irishman with 20.35.

Tyson Gay, the American who will be the defending champion in Berlin, took the victory in 20.00.

The likes of former world champion, Kim Collins of St Kitts and Norway’s big star, Jaysuma Saidy Ndure, trailed behind, the latter a well-beaten fourth in 20.55.

Hession was drawn right on the outside in lane eight, but a brilliant start was reflected in the electronic reading from the starting blocks in that he had the fastest reaction time.

Ireland’s other potential finalist in Berlin, that of 400 metre record holder, David Gillick, took on a great field of sub-45 second runners in Barcelona and finished a close second to Gary Kikaya of the Republic of Congo with a time of 45.48 seconds.

Tomas Chamney also ran another solid 1,500 metres in Barcelona, finishing fourth in 3:37.84, and while this underlined his consistency and again beat the Berlin B standard, it left him short of the A mark.

Niamh Whelan of Waterford, who just missed a medal when fourth in the 100 metres in a personal best 11.63, finished seventh in the final of the 200 metres at the European Junior Championships in Serbia.

Kourosh Foroughi was fifth in the high jump there with a leap of 2.11 metres.

Colin Quirke set an Irish junior record in the shot with a putt of 17.34 metres.