ATHELTICS/News: Irish hopes of European Indoor success next month were greatly heightened over the weekend with the setting of two national records.

The long-jumper Ciaran McDonagh continued his long-awaited return to form by improving the indoor record to 7.85 metres at Blacksburg Invitational meeting in Virginia.

At the same meeting, Karen Skinkins lowered her 400 metre indoor record to a world-class 51.58 seconds.

Like McDonagh, it gave her a comfortable victory. It was also her first time to break 52 seconds, improving on the 52.31 mark she set at the same meeting last year.

McDonagh had been struggling with injury for over two years after his heights of 1999 (when he became the first Irishman to clear eight metres).

After moving to a new training base in Atlanta last September, he has regained his form, and this result thus improved on his two-week-old mark of 7.64 metres.

Shinkins now has the fastest ranked time in Europe, just ahead of Germany's Grit Breuer's 51.62, and in this form will be Ireland's top medal contender at the European Indoor Championships, which take place in Vienna from March 1st-3rd.

Also at the meeting, Peter Coghlan took the 60-metre hurdles race in a season's best of 7.71 seconds.

At the Midwest Track Classic in Lincoln, Nebraska, there was a fourth-place finish for Daniel Caulfield in a tightly contested 800 metres.

Caulfield was timed at 1.49.78 compared to the American winner Derrick Peterson's 1.49.30.

In Ghent yesterday, James Nolan was a slightly disappointing fifth over 1,500 metres, clocking 3.39.57 behind Mehdi Baala of France (3.37.19).

Sarah Reilly did manage a win in the 200 metre B race by clocking 23.21 seconds - which actually ranked her third overall.

On the country, meanwhile, Rosemary Ryan took eighth place in an IAAF cross country series event in Vilamoura, Portugal.

Ethiopia's Berhane Adere took the win in 19.49, yet Ryan will be satisfied with her placing and time of 20.32.