Alistair Cragg has opened his outdoor season with an excellent 2nd place finish over 2 miles in Carson, California on Sunday in 8.23.75. Ethiopian Markos Geneti won in 8.19.61.Alistair will be pleased to have finished well clear of all the top US athletes including their new star Alan Webb. Elsewhere Karen Shinkins had her fastest 400 metres of the year finishing 3rd in the GP meeting in Belem, Brazil in 51.93.Making a welcome return from injury Deirdre Ryan cleared 1.83 metres in the high jump at a meeting in Italy. More welcome news came from Loughborough where Michelle Carey ran 58.81 to win the 400 metres hurdles while Aoife Byrne returning once again from injury finished 2nd in the 1500 metres in 4.17.11. The Kit Kat Irish Schools' provincial championships had their usual spate of quality performances. In Leinster there was a major breakthrough by Brian Gregan in the intermediate 400 metres in a new record of 49.60 . This was excellent running in the blustery conditions and we look forward to his running in the Irish championships in Tullamore in two weeks time . Anthony McCreery cleared 4.75 metres for a new Irish junior record in the pole vault. Anthony is now favourite to make the Irish team for the European Cup next month. In the senior 1500 metres Daire Bermingham lead all the way for a clear victory over John Coghlan in 3.58.80 In the Ulster schools' Jason Smyth won the 100 metres in a stunning 10.64 ( no wind reading available ). With an Irish junior record of 6.92 over 60 metres indoors Jason is in line to achieve the 10.74 standard for the world junior championships. Jason also won the 200 metres in 22.2. Other impressive 100/200 metres sprint doubles were achieved by Amy Foster 12.02/24.7 and Ger O'Reilly 11.14/22.8. Ger also ran impressively in the AAI Games over 200 metres finishing 2nd in 21.94. Star performer in Munster was David McCarthy who ran 1.52 to win the 800 metres. Munster's other middle distance star Ciaran O'Lionaird was absent due to a wisdom tooth extraction. Best race of the day was a thrilling 300 metres between Harriet Crosse and Kalyn Sheehan. Harriet prevailed in 39.76 to Kalyn's 39.88. Kelly Proper won the long jump in 5.90 metres. Shane Quinn won the junior 1500 metres in 4.15 breaking David McCarthy's old record. Outstanding all-rounder Mairead Murphy had a double in the 100/200 metres.