ATHLETICS: The indoor athletics season has a tendency to open unceremoniously but Sarah Reilly started out with some fiery form at the weekend's Birmingham Games. By twice breaking the Irish indoor 200 metres record she clearly indicated her ambitions for the European championships in Vienna (March 1st-3rd).
Reilly's victory over reigning British indoor champion Catherine Murphy also turned out to be the performance of the day. Reilly narrowly edged out her training partner, clocking 23.30 seconds to Murphy's 23.42.
Earlier on Sunday, Reilly won her semi-final in 23.66, also inside the previous record of 23.92 set by Ciara Sheehy on the same track a year ago. In addition she clocked a useful 7.43 seconds when finishing second in Saturday's 60 metre final.
Also opening the season impressively was Gary Ryan, who won the men's 200 metres in 21.51, with Tom Comyns third (21.75).
Mark Mandy made a welcome return to competition by winning the high jump with a best of 2.15 metres, while Zoe Brown improved the women's indoor pole vault record to 3.60 metres when taking second place.
