Saturday at Irishtown - Monte Gorde Training Camp By Frank Greally The Track & Field season gets underway this weekend at Irishtown Stadium in Ringsend, Dublin when the traditional G.V Ryan/ Louis Vandendries Trophy meeting takes place at 5pm on Saturday evening. This promotion organised by Crusaders Athletic Club is this year run in conjunction with the AAI Games & Senior Relay Championships of Ireland. This will be an early season form gauge for many club athletes who will compete across a wide range of events. The recent warm weather should help swell entries in both the track and field events and the stadium in Irishtown is an ideal venue for this first big meeting of the season. Meanwhile, most of Ireland’s Olympic hopefuls have been working out over the past two weeks at a special Athletics Ireland organised training camp in Monte Gordo, Portugal . Athletics Ireland Olympic Team Manager, Patsy McGonagle has been impressed with the training sessions of athletes like Paul Hession, David Gillick, Derval O’Rourke, Joanne Cuddihy, Fionnuala Britton and Olive Loughnane who have all achieved the A qualifying standard for Beijing. “The is a great atmosphere at the training camp and the athletes have come here for a specific training period to get them ready for what will be a long tough season,”Patsy McGonagle said. “The facilities and medical back-up we have here is excellent and everyone is in a real positive mood.” The Irish athletes have also enjoyed the company of the Meath GAA County Team who have also travelled to the same training area. “It just goes to show how professional things have become across the board in Irish sport and it is great to see the Meath players going through their paces as well as our Olympic bound athletes,” Patsy McGonagle said. McGonagle has also been impressed with a few other Irish athletes who have attended the training camp in the hope that a fortnight of intensive training will help their chances of achieving an A qualifying standard for Beijing. “David Campbell and Liam Reale are two athletes who should have a good chance of making the tough Olympic qualifying standard,” Patsy McGonagle said. ”They are both very dedicated athletes and this few weeks will have been a big help to them both. The Irish athletes return home from Portugal on Monday.