Two national records for walkers Gillian O'Sullivan and Robert Heffernan, World Championship qualification and national titles for Thomas Coman (400m), Daniel Caulfield (800m) and James Nolan (1500m) and a record 18th successive national javelin title were the highlights at the National Track and Field championships held in Santry at the weekend.

Men's Events
European U23 200m bronze medallist Mark Howard finished off a superb week by winning his first national senior title defeating four-time champion Gary Ryan to win the 200m in 21.56 seconds. Howard's European medal was the first ever at the European or World level for an Irish male sprinter and was largely overlooked by the Irish media.

The race of the weekend was undoubtedly the men's 400m where Templemore Olympian Thomas Coman just held on to win by seven hundreds breaking his year-old Championship record to win in 45.99. Dundrum South Dublin's Robert Daly who began the season with a PB (personal best) of 46.78, posted 46.07 for second, which moved him up to third on the All Time Irish lists. Interestingly, Coman's winning time would have won him gold at last weekend's European U.23 championships.

Eternal Irish 800 metre bridesmaid Daniel Caulfield who has five national 800m silver medals finally received his just reward by taking over at the bell to record a 53 second last lap to win convincingly from 1500m specialist Conor Sweeney in 1.48.28. National record holder David Matthews finished fifth. Caulfield will now seek to improve or at least match his World Indoor performance last spring where he reached the semi-finals. "To be honest I was terrified" admitted the DCH clubman, as he knew only a win would ensure his ticket to the World championships in Edmonton.

Another Edmonton bound athlete is UCD's James Nolan who took on the pace at the halfway mark to record his first senior 1500m title comfortably clear of Andrew Walker in 3.44.41. After running consistently close to his PB on numerous occasions this season the European Indoor silver medallist will be looking to follow in the footsteps of Niall Bruton and qualify for the World 1500m final.

Fresh from his 7.33.34 in Monte Carlo two days previously, Mark Carroll duly won his third successive 5000m gold and must fancy his chances of mixing it with the Kenyans in Edmonton. "I feel I am coming to a peak at exactly the right time," said the talented Cork runner as he won from NCAA Cross Country champion Keith Kelly who led for the first mile.

Cormac Smith collected his third national steeplechase gold winning comfortably in 9.00.55, which was some way off Brendan Quinn's 16 year-old championship record of 8.32.60. Smith's club mate Peter Matthews scooped his first national track gold when his front running tactics defeated the evergreen Noel Berkeley to win the 10,000m. "It's a great feeling to eventually win it and the wait makes it all the more satisfying," said Matthews who will now look to making next year's European 10,000m.

Ballymena and Antrim's John McAdorney won the 100m crown in 10.55 while Stephen McDonnell celebrated his twenty-first birthday in some style by racing to 400 hurdles gold in 51.97. One day Togher athlete Robert Heffernan will match Jimmy McDonald's superb Olympic 20k walk top six placing and he demonstrated the benefits of training at altitude in the Pyrenees with Robert Korzeniowski (Olympic 20k\50k champion) by knocking over 77 seconds off his own national record when winning the 10,000 walk.

The highlight in the field was Terry McHugh's world record breaking 18th successive national javelin title although the ageless DCH athlete is running out of time to achieve the 80.50m needed to secure qualification for Edmonton.

Sean Lonergan (KCH) completed an impressive double when winning the long and triple jumps with leaps of 7.25m and 15.41m, which are both personal bests performances. The Thomastown native now has his sights set on breaking the National Triple Jump record, which is held by Colm Cronin with 15.89m dating back to 1977.

Women's Events Sarah Reilly completed her second successive sprint double when winning the 100m from Emily Maher in 11.90 and the 200m ahead of European U.23 200m bronze medallist Ciara Sheehy with a 23.78 clocking.

Karen Shinkins romped to her fifth 400m title when setting a new championship best with 52.17. "Now that I am backing off (in training) I will run faster" promised the Newbridge native. It would have been interesting to see how Joanne Cuddihy (arguably Ireland's most promising underage athlete after finishing fifth at last week's World Youth 400m Championships with 53.86) would have fared in this event.

Aoife Byrne moved to fifth on the Irish all time list when recording a spectacular 800m win in 2.03.71. The Dundrum athlete who frequently benefits from racing in the British Miler's club races broke Sonia O'Sullivan's National U23 record with a devastating sprint finish 250m out.

Freda Davoren's recent domestic unbeaten 1500m run came to an unexpected end when Edmonton bound Una English narrowly defeated the Kerry Native to win the 1500m in 4.14.93. Davoren after revising her career best 1500m time down to 4.10 is another athlete who will have next Summers European Championships on her mind during the long winter training months.

Breeda Dennehy-Willis retained her 5000m title with a gun to tape victory in 15.31.92 and will be looking for a good performance in Edmonton.

European U.23 Finalist Derval O'Rourke easily won the 100m hurdles title in a time of 13.96 while Michelle Carey won Dublin Striders first ever-national senior title when impressively winning the 400m hurdles in 59.99.

Field event highlights include championship records for Sharon Foley in the Triple Jump (12.44m), Zoe Brown in the Pole Vault (3.30m) and Eileen O Keefe Hammer (56.15m), while Sharon Foley also won the High Jump with a leap of 1.72m and Antoinette Furlong set a new PB of 6.07m when winning the long jump.

All in all it was a good weekend of athletics with the only curious and disappointing feature being The AAI's failure to find a sponsor for the championships and their inability to promote the event across the various mediums available to them.