A season's best throw of 77.90 metres was not good enough to earn Terry McHugh a place in tomorrow's final of the javelin championship in Athens.

After opening with 72.88 metres, he slipped back to 71.22 with his next effort, but in keeping with his reputation as a good championship competitor, got out to 77.90 with his last throw.

Unfortunately, it still left him some 2.5 metres adrift of the last qualifier in Pool B, Andrey Moruyev of Russia, and 15th overall in a list in which only the top 12 progressed.

Eugene Farrell's direct interest in the championships ended early with a vastly disappointing run of 48.20 seconds in the sixth of seven heats in the 400 metres. It was a chastening introduction to the big time for the Crusaders athlete who was struggling throughout in a race won by Jerome Young of the USA in 45.34 seconds.

Neil Ryan, likewise, had only a fleeting interest in the heats of the 100 metres on Saturday, finishing fifth in a time of 10.57 seconds in the race won by Marcin Krzywanski of Poland.

Overall, the casualty rate among the Irish has been high. Roman Linscheid made no impact in the preliminaries of the hammer championship, reaching only 67.96 metres, while Tom McGuirk went out of the 400 metres hurdles after finishing fifth of seven in spite of a season's best 49.93 seconds.[QL ]

Irish In Action Today

800m< LI David Matthews 8.0 a.m. High Jump - Mark Mandy 4.0 p.m. 1,500m (sf) - Niall Bruton 6.35 p.m.