McIlroy returns in impressive style - 08 February 2010

James McIlroy announced his return to top athletics with a spectacular victory in the Mens 800 metres at yesterdays Irish Indoor Champs at the Odyssey.

The 33 year old Larne athlete abruptly retired from the sport two years ago after the World Indoors. In his weekend heat he recorded a stadium record time of 1 minute 48.64 secs. This inspired him to a superb win in the final where he had 1.5 secs to spare at the finish over arch rival David McCarthy.

Afterwards the former Olympian said he had finally got the bug to race again. While he has no long term plans, he is hoping for an invite to this week's big Indoor meeting in Birmingham. He may go for a qualification time for the World Indoors in Doha next month which he just missed at the Odyssey by 0.14 secs.

The seventh meeting of these Odyssey Champs proved again to be highly successful with several eye catching performances.

Irish Junior Athlete of the year, Ciara Mageean seems to break records with every race. On this occasion her 2 mins 7.82 secs winning time in the 800 metres took almost a second off the 19 year old Irish record. There is clearly more to come from the Portaferry girl if she can contain her habit of a super fast early pace.

Lisburn's Kelly McNeice had an impressive win to form with a superb win in the 1500 metres in a Championship best performance of 4 mins 14.64 secs which is a qualification time for Doha. The Lisburn athlete is clearly back to her best thanks to a new coach plus a hard training schedule in the US. She said she was looking forward to her first ever World Indoors as a build up to the Commonwealths in Deli in the summer.

Former World Indoor Champion Derval O'Rourke was delighted with her 8.18 secs win in the 60 metres hurdles. This was her tenth Championship victory and came on the back of a 3 week injury inforced layoff. She said, "Because of this, I wasn't expecting such a good time. I know I am in good form and I am now looking forward to the Worlds in Doha."

Celbridge's Claire Brady got the athlete of the meeting award for an outstanding 7.35 secs victory in the 60 metres which took a massive .13 secs off her PB from London a week ago. Her performances are getting ever closer to Anna Boyle's Irish record of 7.30 secs.

In the mens sprint, top European Paul Hession's winning time of 6.75 secs was .13 secs ahead of Ballamena's Dean Adams.

Another top performance came in the womans 3K walk where Waterford's Zuzana Malikova's winning time of 12 mins 36.43 secs heads the current World rankings. There was a similar easy victory in the mens 5K walk from Olympian Robert Heffernan in a useful 12.24.64.

Ballymena's Claire Wilkinson started her season in style with a 3.90 metres win in the pole vault which is a Irish U23 record.

Jo Patterson from Ballymena & Antrim led from the gun in the women’s 400m and then had to withstand a very strong challenge from Claire Mooney from Naas AC to win in a time of 56.43 to Mooney’s 56.60.

Other impressive results included Kelly Proper's 6.35 victory in the long jump and an outstanding solo run by Ireland's Deirdre Byrne in the Woman's 3,000 metres in 9 mins 3.53 secs. Both athletes will be competing in Doha.

Claire Brady gets Athlete of the Meet award.

Sports Minister Nelson McCausland attended the event in the Odyssey Arena to see the first day of competition and present prizes to a selection of winning athletes.
He said: “This event is one of the biggest in the Northern Ireland athletics calendar and I am very proud it is being held in Belfast in the terrific facilities at the Odyssey Arena.

“The Arena, which I understand hosts the only indoor hydraulic 200-metre running track in Northern Ireland or the Irish Republic, has been transformed this weekend into a showcase for top class athletes from around the world.

“Today, I have seen an extraordinary display of athletic talent and I applaud all those taking part for their skill, determination and dedication to their sport. I also congratulate Athletics Northern Ireland for organising a first-class event.”

Brian Hill

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RTÉ 2 will be showing highlights of the Championships on an OB Sports special on Monday 8th of February at 19:00 – 20:00.

Official photos will be uploaded to the Irish Indoors site and ANI Flickr today.