The Irish team will return from Moscow today (see below for travel details) with the golden glow of achievement and success. The weekend turned out to be a historic one with Derval O’Rourke making double history with an outstanding performance taking gold in the 60m hurdles becoming the first ever Irish Woman to take gold at the event and the first Irish person ever to take gold in a technical event. In an impressive series of world class performances Derval ran 7:93 in her heat, 7:87 in the semi-final and a new national record of 7:84 in the final. In a class field the Irish woman continued her season unbeaten record to fight off the challenge Glory Alozie of Spain, and Suzanna Kallur of Sweden to win her first major championship title. Derval had an unbeaten record coming into the championships, high in confidence with a series of wins and national records under her belt she took on the class field and demonstrated sheer class composure and style to hurdle to victory. The indications have been there with Derval taking two medals home from the World University Games and making the semi-finals at World Indoors and World Championships in 2005, and achieving the A standard in 2003 at 21 years of age. Derval’s achievement is the result of sheer dedication and hard work over a number of years. Her performance will be an inspiration to the young crop of talented athletes in Ireland at present. The message is loud and clear – Irish Athletes can win in technical events and hard work over time is the key. Alistair Cragg demonstrated sheer class in Moscow taking the 4th spot in the men’s 3000m. It was never going to be easy with a loaded field including the two Bekele brothers Shaheen and a host of other quality athletes. Alistair who had had an inconsistent season prior to Moscow, qualified after a fall in the heat and then finished fourth and the first European in the 3000m, behind World Champions Kenesia Bekele of Ethopia, Shaheen of Quatar, and Kipchoige of Kenya who was third. In the men’s 1500m James Nolan continued his impressive return to world class form coming sixth in the men’s 1500m final. James already set a 3000m and 1000m personal best this season and has shown a steady return to form. David McCarthy finished last in his semi-final but was unlucky to have been forced to run very wide on the third bend, which took its toll in the finishing stages of the race. David has too returned to the kind of form that saw him in the final of the same event in 2003 in Birmingham. David Gillick did not progress out of the heats and this will be a blow to the reigning European Indoor Champion. After a series of excellent 200m races David made a late decision to enter. David will be hugely disappointed but we are sure will bounce back in the summer. Both Emily Maher and Ailis McSweeney showed guts and determination making it to the semi-finals in the women’s 60m and Maria McCambridge and Roisin McGettigan failed to make an impression in the women’s 3,000m. Ireland have taken home a medal in the last three World Indoor Championships taking bronze in Budapest in 2004 with the men’s 4 x 400m relay, bronze in 2003 with Paul McKee’s 400m performance and now GOLD in 2006. At the NCAA Division 1 Indoor Championships in Fayetteville Arkansas, Mary Cullen took silver in the Women’s 3000m to Joanna Wilson of Northern Arizona and Thomas Chamney of Notre Dame finished 6th in the men’s 800m final in a time of 1:48.50. The Irish team arrive into Dublin Airport this evening at 8:50pm. The airline carrier is Czech airlines. For further information please contact Elaine Fitzgerald Athletics Ireland 087-9782478