Paris, France - special to Irish Runner.com by Dave Mervyn
Day one of the World Championships has left everyone gasping for air. Literally. The athletes' village housed on the Cite university campus has no air conditioning, a problem sufficient enough to remove the entire US team apparently.

Thanks to our Indian summer in Ireland our athletes were well adapted to the mid-30 temperatures and our opening three-of-a-kind shuffled into action for the second session. Their results could be well surmised in the footballing parlance of played three, won one, drawn one and lost one.'

First into action was Belfast sprinter Paul McKee. Drawn in lane seven due to his poor outdoor ranking, he figured well early on but was badly off the pace at 300. McKee had watched from under the massive concave of the stadium as Jamaica's Michael Blackwood ran 45.13 from lane eight to take a surprise victory in the first heat. Determined to run in a similar style from the gun, the Beechmount Harrier took the quickest reaction time of the heats, 0.140 and quickly began to match Australia's Daniel Batman stride. However with American Calvin Harrison dictating and eventually winning from lane two, 45.43, the Ulsterman grimaced at the finish as he clocked a disappointing 46.43, over a second slower than his 2002 outdoor Irish record.

Speaking afterwards, he was philosophical on the ending of his summer season. 'I came to the championships with this hamstring injury in the back of my mind and maybe that affected me,' he explained, 'to be honest, I've not had the sort of form I should have had. It's disappointing for it to end this way. To qualify I would have had to dip under 46 and I have hardly done that this year.' Third placed Tunisian Sofiane Labidi was the final qualifier from McKee's heat with a time of 46.07.

Commenting on the media's view of him as a 'big day' racer, McKee said he 'was definitely up for it today. It was sapping in the heat though but I'll draw on the experience and come back again fighting next season. It's a big year and I want to give the Olympics everything I've got.'

Another Antrim athlete Gareth Turnbull, 24, also placed seventh in his respective heat of the 1500m as Saint-Denis welcomed cooler evening temperatures. A farcical idea from the IAAF to run twenty-nine athletes in three heats to lose five for the semi-finals on Monday. Even more ludicrous that the first two heats turned in winning times of 3:47.26 and 3:42.24, leaving Turnbull's heat the chance to glide easily around the track five or six seconds off their best to qualify.

The St Malachy's man succeeded in advancing to the semi-finals having led through 400 (59.87), 800 (2:01.03) and taking the bell in 2:46.21 ahead of Kenyan Isaac Songok. Portugal's Rui Silva came through on the final straight to take the win in 3:41.35. Turnbull was overtaken, bunched and slipped back to seventh due to a clip from Britain's Michael East inside the last 200.

The top eight all qualified for the semi-finals with only half-a-second between Turnbull and Silva.

Trackside, Turnbull was in no mood for an extended analysis of his performance. 'I did what I had to do. I was ready for this race today even if it wasn't going to be run with so few entries in the 1500. My race strategy was to get out quick, stay out of trouble and cover anything round the last bend. It was my first race at a senior major championships and it felt good.'

Ireland's only other competitor in action, Marie McMahon Davenport of Marian had to withdraw from the 10,000m final due to injury. The race was won in a Championship record time of 30:04.18 by Ethiopian Berhane Adere with the top fifteen all recording season's best and a new World junior record from seventh placed Huina Xing of China.

Davenport, if running to her best, would have placed seventeenth of twenty-three athletes.