McSweeney and O'Rourke Dash to Irish Records in Sheffield

14 February 2005

Leevale athletes Ailis McSweeney and Derval O'Rourke rewrote the Irish record books in Sheffield on Sunday in the 60m and 60m hurdles to cap a marvellous weekend for the Irish at the British Indoor AAA's.

Having threatened it for the last few weeks, McSweeney finally took possession of Michelle Carroll's 60m mark which had stood for 12 years, shaving .01 from the 7.38 record finishing 3rd in 7.37 sec. O'Rourke also finished 3rd but knocked a significant .06 from her own record set two years ago as she ran 8.06 - a time which moves her into the top 10 in Europe for 2005.

David Gillick was a convincing winner of the 400m and almost managed another personal best after a hard weekend's racing, his 46.45 performance just .02 off the pb he set in the semi on Saturday. With all the weekend's major results now in, Gillick remains the fastest 400m runner in Europe for 2005.

James Nolan was narrowly beaten in a tactical 1500m, running 3:46.04 behind Britain's Neil Speaight. Aoife Byrne also finished second in the women's 800m running a new indoor personal best of 2:06.73.

Meanwhile in Boston, Roisin McGettigan ran a superb 4:32.35 in the mile to move into second place on the all-time Irish Indoor list, ahead of Sonia O'Sullivan among others. She finished 2nd in the race behind U.S. Olympian Amy Rudolph.