The IUAA Indoor Championships take place on Friday, 5th of February with Ireland’s student athletes descending on Athlone for the one day competition. Race of the day is likely to be the men’s 400m with Irish 400m hurdles record holder Thomas Barr (Ferrybank AC/University of Limerick) going head to head with Dara Kervick (Clonliffe Harriers AC/DCU). Kervick ran 47.26 at the GloHealth AAI Open Games last weekend which was only .06 outside the European qualification standard.

IFAM Indoor Grand Prix

Away from the domestic action a number of Ireland’s top track and field athletes will compete at the IFAM indoor meeting in Belgium. Ciara Everard (UCD AC) will contest the 800m in Belgium, a week after running 2.03.37, which was inside the qualifying time (2.03.50) for the European Indoor Championships in Prague. Another athlete with Prague on his mind will be World junior semi-finalist Karl Griffin (UCD AC) as he goes in the men’s 800m along with 2014 national indoor champion Niall Tuohy (Ferrybank AC).

2014 European cross country team bronze medallist Sara Treacy (Dunboyne AC) drops down in distance to tackle the 1,500m. Joe Warne (Doheny AC) and Eoin Everard (Kilkenny City Harriers AC) compete in the men’s equivalent. Irish sprinters will be out in force with Craig Lynch (Shercock AC) competing in the 60m and 400m, Gerard O’Donnell (Carrick on Shannon AC) - 60m Hurdles, Sarah Lavin (UCD AC) – 60m Hurdles and Paul Byrne (St Abbans AC) – 400m Hurdles.

New Balance Team Set for Boston

Over at the New Balance Games in Boston there will be a New Balance team competing in the DMR relay. The team will be made up of Claire Tarplee (DSD AC) – 1,200, Christine McMahon (Ballymena & Antrim AC) – 400m, Katie Kirk (Queens University AC) – 800m and Ciara Mageean (UCD AC) – 1,600m.