Liam Reale made the most significent breakthrough of the outdoor season to date when finishing 2nd in a 1500 metres race in Boston on Saturday in a time of 3.38.65. The performance was a substantial advance on his previous best of 3.42.33 from 2004 and well inside the qualifying standard ( 3.41.00 ) for the European Championships in Gothenburg .The Hospital, Co Limerick born athlete moves to 18th on the Irish all-time list with this wonderful performance which is the equivalent of 3.56 for the mile. Elsewhere in the USA Thomas Chamney won the regional NCAA 800 metres in Knoxville in 1.48.86 and in the light of this performance a breakthough is expected from him in the NCAA finals in Sacramento in two weeks. Mary Cullen continued her good series of performances in winning her regional 5000 metres in North Carolina in 15.50.18. At the latter venue Martin Fagan finished 3rd in the 5000 metres in 14.06.19. Catherine Crawford while not qualifying for the finals ran 13.84 W for the 100 metres hurdles following up on her recent breakthrough of a legal 13.86. Deirdre Byrne was 5th in her 1500 metres in 4.26.09. In Riga on Saturday Fionnuala Britton finished 2nd in the 3000 metres steeplechase in 10.08.85 just two seconds off her best while Darragh Graham had two decents runs in an EAP Meeting in Portugal winning the 100 metres in 11.08 (+0.1 ) and 4th in the 200 metres in 22.29 ( -1.4 ) On the first day of the European Club championships in Istanbul the best Abbey AC performance was 2nd in the 400 metres from Irish international Elaine McCaffrey in 55.51. Christine Long was 3rd in the 800 metres in 2.13.17 . James Nolan had a disappointing run in the 1500 metres in Hengelo today finishing 9th in 3.43.0 Paul Brizzel posted some good results from the UK inter county championships in Bedford on Sunday/ Monday. Paul finished 3rd in the 100 metres final in 10.36w (+4.6 ) and ran 21.32 +0.7 in his heat of the 200 metres and 21.22w (+5.2 ) in his semi final. He withdrew from the final. In the long jump Stephen Fleming finished 2nd with an excellent seasonal start of 7.43w metres ( +3.6 ). In the 100 metres final junior athlete Amy Foster finished 4th with an excellent 11.75w ( +3.4 ) and a legal 11.97 +0.4 in her heat.The triple jump saw Sara Barry clear a fine 12.65 metres ( +1.1 ). Kalyn Sheehan won her heat of the 400 metres hurdles with 62.92 but did not contest the final. In Tullamore on Sunday there was a reported new personal best for the ever improving Laura Cogan with 13.39 metres. Further afield in Orlando Florida Ian McDonald produced two new personal bests in the 110 metres hurdles with 14.69 and 14.57