Irish Quartet Qualify For NCAA Championships
Keith Kelly (Drogheda, Co. Louth), the reigning NCAA Cross Country Champion and member of the Irish World Cross team leads a group of four Irish athletes competing in the NCAA Championships to be held 30th May through the 2nd of June at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon. Eugene is regarded as the Track Capital of America, made famous by the late Steve Prefontaine who took on the world's best during his brief career. Kelly who runs for Ray Treacy's Providence Friars is the #1 seed in the 10,000-metre event by virtue of his 28:32.55 performance run in cold rain at Mt Sac Relays in Walnut, California on April 20th. Paul Reilly (Loughrea, Co. Galway) qualified when he ran a new personal best and European Under-23 qualifying time of 13.56.19 in the 5000 metres on May 19th at the IC4A Conference meet held at Princeton, New Jersey. His time is well inside the standard for the European under 23's.

A pair of Irish record holders makes up the women's representatives. Nicola Coffey (Ardbraccan, Co. Navan) who competes for St Johns University will compete in the hammer throw, where she is seeded nineteenth. The Navan AC athlete qualified when she broke Olivia Kelleher's Irish National Hammer record (57.53m) with her throw of 58.48m winning the recent Big East Women's Championships. Róisín McGettigan (Co. Wicklow) qualified in the women's 3,000m steeplechase when she ran 10.20.99 at the Albany Spring Classic on 12th May. The Providence College sophomore is seeded eighteenth in her event, which is being run for the first time in the NCAA Championships. Coincidentally, shortly after McGettigan ran her 10.20.99, the Athletics Association of Ireland announced the Irish standard to compete in the European Under-23 Championships set for mid-July in Amsterdam in that event would be 10.20.00.

Irish at BMC
It was a good night for Irish athletes at the BMC meet in Wythenshawe Park writes Brendan Hackett. It was the first time that Irish athletes competed as Irish Milers Club members and they made a fantastic impression. Colm McLean got back to winning ways in the 1500m. This was his first race since last Aug and despite the long break he showed some of his familiar kick with a last 200m of 27 seconds. In the B1500 Garreth Coughlan took 7 seconds of his PB with a time of 3.53. The women's 1500 was the race of the night for the Irish. Anne Marie Larkin confirmed her early season form with another impressive victory. She again finished strongly to hold off Rachael Newcombe who has won a number of BMC Grand Prix races in recent seasons. Deidre Byrne's performance in running the European Junior Qualifying time was even more significant when you consider that she is the first girl to run a qualifying time for this event in many years. The next BMC Grand Prix is on 9th June.