special to Irish Runner.com by Eoghan Young-Murphy

The news that High Jump star Adrian O'Dwyer has declared himself unavailable for the European Indoor championships next weekend has shattered Ireland's hopes of winning a first ever field-event medal at the competition.

O'Dwyer had been tipped to gain a medal at the event - he only just failed to do so at the World equivalent last year. He also holds the Irish indoor record of 2.29 for the event, a repeat of which would have secured him at least a bronze.

But things are not progressing smoothly for O'Dwyer this year; he has been struggling to rectify a series of technical problems with his jumping.

"I did intend going to the European indoors, but having jumped poorly in my first competition of the year, I have decided to give it a miss," says the Kilkenny man.

"Now I am just going to concentrate on the outdoor season and I am very confident that the problems I am having with my jumping will soon be fixed. I am in very good physical shape; it's just the technical things that I am having a problem with."

Not so long go O'Dwyer's coach, Maeve Kyle, was declaring herself confident that her young charge would excel in the European Indoors - namely, win a medal of some sort. Now, she is sanguine that this setback will not detract from his outdoor season.

"It is very difficult to have an indoor and an outdoor season," says the Ballymena former Olympian. "You will notice that many of the world's best jumpers don't compete indoors at all. So it's no concern that Adrian isn't competing next week."

O'Dwyer is dubbed by many as the future star of Irish athletics, the athlete most likely to take over the mantle from Sonia O'Sullivan. But unlike the prolific Cork woman, O'Dwyer has just decided to pursue his career in Ireland - he has just taken up a scholarship in University College Dublin.

"The program I have in UCD is designed to have as little as study as possible and as much training as possible," quips the 21-year-old. "I only have four hours of study a week but I train about six hours a day."