Gary Ryan placed 5th in Heat 6 in the opening round of the 60 metres. Ryan, from Nenagh Olympic ran 6.83, a seasonal best but did not advance to the semifinal.

Ryan's personal best in the event is 6.73, the Irish Record that he set in Birmingham on 3rd March 2003. Ryan spent the winter training in Australia having already run superb times of 10.64 (+1.1) in the 100m and 20.96 (+1.7) in the 200 metres in Canberra on 31st January. Ryan 31, became the first Irish man to break 21-second barrier indoors when he ran 20.99 at the Birmingham Games last year, improving his 5 year old personal best.

Ryan will be back on Sunday as a member of the Irish 4 x 400m relay team.

Joanne Cuddihy ran 54.02 to place 6th in Heat 1 of the opening round of the 400 metres. Cuddihy, who now competes for University College Dublin was well off her seasonal best 53.49 run in Birmingham on 25th January 2003. Whilst it was harsh introduction to the World Championships, Cuddihy, who is only 19 years-old won the silver at the 2003 European Junior Championships in Tampere, Finland with a time of 53.62 gained valuable experience as she chases the Olympic A Standard of 51.50.

Along with Cuddihy, Karen Shinkins, the European Indoor 400m bronze medallist in 2002 also failed to advance to tomorrow's semifinal. Shinkins (Dublin City Harriers) in Heat 3, Lane 5 had the fastest reaction time of all the athletes in the women's 400m at .144 seconds. Shinkins ran 54.37 for 6th place. Shinkins is Irish National record holder indoors (51.58) and outdoors (51.07).

Ireland's promising young 400m star, David McCarthy advanced to Saturday's semifinal race where he will compete in Heat 1, Lane 2. McCarthy ran 46.94 to place 4th in Heat 4 and advanced as one of the fastest losers. McCarthy (Celbridge AC) placed 5th in last year's World Indoor Championships in 46.61.

Dundrum South Dublin's Robert Daly placed 3rd in Heat 5 with a time of 47.42. Daly is the 4th fastest Irish man in history indoor (46.68) and 5th fastest Irishman outdoors (46.07).

Maria McCambridge (Dundrum South Dublin) ran 8.59.11 to place 3rd in Heat 2 and automatically qualify for Sunday's final. McCambridge's time was less than three seconds off her recent personal best of 8.56.48.

McCambridge, a Providence College graduate is ranked #2 on the All-Time Irish Indoor list with only Sonia O'Sullivan's National Record of 8.44.37 set in Lisbon, Portugal on 8th March 1997 ahead of her.

Adrian O'Dwyer caused a sensation in Budapest a fortnight ago when he equalled Brendan Reilly's National Indoor High Jump record with a world-class 2.28m jump at the Hungarian Open Indoor Championships. O'Dwyer (Kilkenny City Harriers) needed two jumps to advance to Saturday's final. He passed at 2.15m, cleared 2.20m on his second attempt, passed 2.24m and cleared 2.27m on his third and final jump. O'Dwyer, only 20 years old is the second youngest to qualify for the final behind Jaroslav Bába (Czech Republic) who turns 20 in September.

Complete Results for the 2004 IAAF World Indoor Championships