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| | Tuesday, 4 June, 2002, 17:58 GMT 18:58 UK McKee to compete in Belfast McKee's career has been dogged by injuries New Irish 400m record holder Paul McKee will be the big attraction in Saturday's Northern Ireland Athletics Championship at the Mary Peters Track. McKee, fresh from breaking the Irish record in Estonia on Sunday, will probably drop down in distance to compete over 200m in Belfast. The West Belfast man told BBC Sport Online that the current unprecedented strength in Irish 400m running had spurred him to break Derek O'Connor's 16-year-old mark on Sunday. McKee erased the Irish record of 45.73 seconds with a winning time of 45.62secs in Tartu. "I was glad to see David McCarthy, Rob Daly and Tomas Coman running so well indoors during the winter," said McKee.
"I had thought about running indoors myself but I then after training really well in November my knee went and I had to concentrate of getting myself right for the outdoor season". Sunday's tremendous run suggests McKee is ready to fulfil his potential. He made his major breakthrough in 1999 by qualifying for the Irish 4x400m relay squad at the World Championships in Seville. However since then, his progress has been affected by a knee complaint and a throat problem. "I finally got my tonsils taken out in September and the knee problem has been sorted out by Ronald Holder who is a physio based in London. "The knee injury was causing me all sorts of problems with my hips and hamstrings as well but Ronald has got me right now".
On Wednesday morning, McKee seems certain to be among the first batch of Northern Ireland track and field competitors announced for this year's Commonwealth Games. Up to six athletes are expected to be named in the initial selection. Gareth Turnbull (1500m), James McIlroy (800m), Eva Massey (shot), Michael Allen (javelin) and Teresa Duffy (marathon) could also be given an early nod. McIlroy ran his fastest 800m of the season in Greece on Saturday and bettered the Commonwealth Games standard of 1:47.50 in the process. He placed fifth behind Kenyan winner Nicolas Wachira in a meeting in Kalamata. McIlroy clocked 1:47.35 which left him over two seconds behind former World junior champion Wachira (1:45.13). Algerian Said Guerni (1:45.40), Kenya's Vincent Kempoy (1:45.58) and Burundi's Arthemon Hatungimana (1:46.25) were also ahead of McIlroy. Raymond Adams will have hopes of joining McIlroy in the 800m in Manchester. Skelton record The Lagan Valley man produced an encouraging run at the British Milers Club meeting in Manchester on Monday to clock 1:48.91. That left him in fourth place behind winner Simon Lees (1:47.83), Alistair Donaldson (1:48.09) and Joel Kidger (1:48.16). Those behind Adams included last year's AAA's champion Neil Speaight (1:50.00). Conor Sweeney (3:42.79) finished fifth in the men's 1500m behind winner Matt Shone (3:42.08). Sweeney led with 100m to go but was overhauled in the closing stages by four athletes. At the same meeting, Ballymena athlete Maria Skelton achieved a new Northern Ireland women's 5000m record with a clocking of 16:26.24 which placed her eighth. Dermot Donnelly finished 11th in the men's 5000m with a time of 14:05.23. | | See also:  02 Jun 02 | N Ireland 04 Jun 02 | Athletics 01 Jun 02 | N Ireland Internet links: The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Top N Ireland stories now: Links to more N Ireland stories are at the foot of the page. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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