The national junior and under 23 track and field championships will be held in Tullamore on Sunday next 2nd July commencing at 10.30am and concluding at 6pm. It's a long day for athletes and officials but a welter of exciting and quality competition is anticipated. For the top juniors it is a particularly important occasion with qualification for the forthcoming world junior championships in Beijing foremost on their minds. With qualification already achieved this year Kelly Proper (long jump) and Kalyn Sheehan ( 400 metres hurdles ),both from Ferrybank ,can afford a more relaxed approach on Sunday. Amy Foster who qualified for the 200 metres last year and Roseanne Galligan who did the 1500 metres standard have had contrasting seasons this year. While Amy has been in excellent form in the sprints Roseanne has been suffering from injury.There should be excellent races over the 100 and 200 metres on Sunday with Amy the deserving favourite in both events and perhaps if conditions are favourable the 100 metres standard of 11.90 is possible.Louise Kiernan , Claire Brady, Gemma Hynes and Kathryn will provide stern opposition but Ferrybank's Niamh Whelan is in great form and could be the closest to Amy.Roseanne is only slowly recovering from injury and her state of fitness is hard to predict. Jason Smyth should be the star of the sprints having already posted some superb times this season but all frustratingly wind assisted.The 10.74 for 100 and indeed the 21.64 for 200 are undeniably within his grasp with favourable conditions.While it is unclear as yet as to who will line up in the middle distance events on paper the 800 metres could be an outstanding event. Conor Murphy and Brian Markham who ran so well in Budapest last week will be looking for good runs while Steven Morrow who has a faster time than both but was off the pace in Budapest will be looking for revenge.David McCarthy though will be favourite if he opts for this event over the 1500 metres.In the middle distances expect some excellent running from the likes of Daire Bermingham (simply superb this year ), Brendan O'Neill , Eoin Healy and cross country champion Stephen Scullion. Ciaran O'Lionaird has been injured and we are unsure of his participation. The star of the under 23 programme will be Joanne Cuddihy who has been truly outstanding over 400 metres this year in addition to the 200 metres. Otherwise the middle distances are likely to dominate. Linda Byrne has followed on from her superb year in 2005 with new personal bests for 800 and 1500 metres with a particularly fine 4.17 for the latter.Orla Drumm has also been improving in every race and is now down to 4.19. A race over 1500 between both these athletes could be fascinating. It's unknown what race Fionnuala Britton ,who has twice been well inside the European qualifying standard ,will be participating in but could be in the mix for the 1500 metres.Eoin Everard who has been running so well this past year over 800 metres is the likely winner of that event. Form over 1500 and 5000 metres will be watched with interest as there is a strong belief that there is sufficient talent from that group to make a major impact in the inaugural European under 23 cross country next December. Mark Christie, Mark Kirwan, Joe Sweeney, Michael Clohissey, Colin Costello, Richie Yeates and Richard Corcoran are but some of the possibilities. Unfortunately Danny Darcy is out injured. In other events the form of Eoin Leen (coming back from injury ) in the discus will be watched closely as will that of Padraig White who is throwing well in the hammer.Also watch out for Elaine McCaffrey in the 400 who was part of the Irish team in the European Cup which broke the 4x400 record. And finally Sharon Heveron who has cleared 1.86 metres in the high jump and has already qualified for next year's European under 23 championships. National Junior and under 23 Championships TimeTable