special to irishrunner.com by David Reid

Talented twenty-two year old Kilkenny native Joanne Cuddihy proved the star attraction at a well organized National Track and Field Championships at Santry.

Representing UCD the 2003 European Junior Silver medalist easily overcame fellow Noreside athlete Emily Maher to record a new personal best of 23.33 in Saturday's 200m final.

Displaying maturity and keen coaching guidance by frequently racing at 200m (typified by her excellent bronze medal performance at last week's AAA's) in order to hone her speed ahead of the European Championships next month Joanne proceeded to run a championship record of 51.38 to finish ahead of 400m hurdles specialist Michelle Carey who also clocked a PB of 52.67.

Cuddihy who overcame a double dose of glandour fever and severe knee injuries that knocked her back last year has risen progressively over the years clocking a highly promising 53.86 back in 2001 when finishing fifth in the World Youth Championships and then followed up her European Junior silver medal when securing fourth place at the 2003 World Student Games at Daegu, Korea with a time of 52.94 which prior to this year remained her personal best.

Joanne currently ranks 17th in Europe with an astonishing ten Russians ahead of her. Her comments after her 400m win indicated further improvement in the immediate future." Today I felt strong I could possibly have run faster but I did not want to go too hard coming into the wind as it was pretty strong in the finishing straight." Expect her to run close to 50.50 in Göteborg at the Europeans, smash Karen Shinkins National Record, comfortably make the final and run close to a medal.

Róisín McGettigan is another Irish Female athlete well capable of finishing in the top six in the forthcoming European Championships. Fresh from loping an astounding thirteen seconds from her National 3000m steeplechase record at Heusden Belgium on Saturday night with a superb 9.32.04 clocking McGettigan held off UCC's Orla Drumm to take the 800m title in 2.08.10.

Liam Reale who secured his first National Senior track medal in 2000 when finishing an excellent third in the Steeplechase as a seventeen year old claimed his first National Senior title yesterday over 1500m when he ran a smart tactical race settling in behind Alistair Cragg who passed through 400m in 58.66 and 800m in 2.00.50 before setting out on the last lap to finish comfortably ahead of Cragg in 3.43.26. Limerick native Reale who missed out on European Junior gold over 1500m by 0.44 in 2001 when finishing 4th in a blanket finish will benefit enormously from his forthcoming appearance at Gothenburg and he could be the athlete to finally take Ray Flynn's long standing National Records over 1500m/Mile during the coming years.

"I always wanted to win a National title but to win it from such a good field made it special" said Reale afterwards. Meanwhile Cragg looks set to race again over 1500m in London at the weekend and remains on course for a big performance at Göteborg.

European Indoor Champion David Gillick secured a personal best when taking his first National senior title with 45.67 defeating Paul McKee who clocked 45.96 in a very competitive race. McKee charged out of the blocks and after 200m looked to be in total control after Gillick appeared to start very slow though he cruised down the home straight and was rewarded with a highly encouraging time which now ranks him 11th in Europe though is only 0.32 away from the third ranked athlete which indicates that if the DSD clubman can make the final in Göteborg than anything can happen. Le Cheile's David McCarthy who is also included in the team for the European Championships finished third with 46.76.

World 60m Hurdles champion Derval O'Rourke predictably won her fifth straight 100m hurdles title but wasn't overjoyed with her winning time of 13.24 albeit into a -0.6 m/s wind. With Swede Susanne Kallur currently leading the European Rankings with 12.52 and enjoying home advantage in Göteborg, Derval would need to be running 12.70 or under to be in the shake up for medals which she is well capable of.

Irish 800m running has experienced a major revival this year due to the exploits of Thomas Chamney and David Campbell who both eclipsed the 1.47 barrier and qualified for Gothenburg. Chamney's superior Championship experience (including a sixth place finish at this year's NCAA's) honed on the NCAA collegiate circuit with Notre Dame was a helping factor when he overcame Campbell on the final straight to secure his first National title in 1.48.71 with promising twenty year old Eoin Everard taking bronze with 1.49.6.

Gary Murray added the 5000m title to the 1500m title that he won last year when rather surprisingly beating Mullingar's Martin Fagan in a photo finish.

Fagan who will be concentrating on the 10,000m in Göteborg just lost in a photo finish recording 14.14.30 to Murray's 14.14.21. James Nolan finished third in 14.28.10 after missing the 1500m and needing to appear in the championships to ensure his selection for the Europeans. Nonetheless, Nolan was happy with his season best of 3.37.89 recorded at Heusden on Saturday night.

Other impressive victors included Talented Waterford junior Kelly Proper who set a new National Junior record and Championship best of 6.32 in the Long jump, Mary Cullen who added the National 1500m to her recently won NCAA 5000m title, Darragh Graham in the 100m and Jamie Costin who won the 10k walk title just two years after his horrific misfortune in Athens.

Overall it was a promising Championship with Ireland having the potential to deliver a number of medalists in Gothenburg and a record number of finalists.