Two more Irish athletes qualified for the upcoming European Championships slated for Göteborg, Sweden in August. Crusader's Thomas Chamney qualified in the 800-metre event in Belgium, while closer to home, DSD's Aoife Byrne surpassed the European 1,500m Standard of 4.13.00 at the Mardyke in Cork.

Chamney, 22, ran 1.46.82 to place third in the Léon Buyle Memorial Flanders Cup meeting held in Oordegem, Belgium on 1st July. American Jebreh Harris won the race in 1.46.46 with Belgian Thomas Matthys who is only 20 in second with a time of 1.46.81.

The time was a considerable .82 improvement over his 1.47.64 which placed him sixth at the NCAA Championships held in Sacramento, California on 10th June. Chamney, who will be entering his senior year at the University of Notre Dame, began the 2006 season with an outdoor personal best of 1.48.84 which he ran in Seville on 10th June 2005. Chamney joins David Campbell who ran 1.46.99 at Solihull on 24th June.

Aoife Byrne, 25, placed second in the 1,500 metres at the Cork City Sports meeting on 1st July. Byrne improved on her personal best by a massive 4.91 seconds running 4.12.47 comfortably under the European Standard. Mestawol Tadesse (Ethiopia) won the race in 4.11.42.

Presently, Byrne is the fourth fastest Irish qualifier behind Sinéad Delahunty-Evans (4.08.91), Jolene Byrne (4.11.72) and Maria McCambridge (4.11.73) but is the only athlete to meet the standard during the 2006 outdoor campaign. If all things remain the same, it will produce an interesting quandary for the Athletics Ireland selection committee.