ATHLETICS: Normally it takes a financial bonus and some frenzied crowd support to produce a world record in athletics. No such razzmatazz, though, when the couple of world marks fell in Santry on Saturday. About 100 calm cheers greeted Gillian O'Sullivan when she crossed the line in the 5,000 metres walk. Her time of 20 minutes 2.60 seconds chopped over 10 seconds off the record set by Australia's Kerry Saxby-Junna in 1996, writes Ian O'Riordan

And this was no soft record either. Saxby-Junna set multiple world records during her lengthy career, and is also a former world silver medallist. Yet O'Sullivan, too, has been establishing herself over the last couple of years, and was previously best remembered for her 10th place in the 20km race at the Sydney Olympics.

So Saturday's performance was no surprise to anyone who has followed the rise of the Kerry athlete. Deep down, the old mark of 20:13.26 was something she had been thinking about over the last few weeks, as she trained exhaustively in the mountains of Austria.

"Most of all I can't believe it's happened to me," she said, "because you never really believe you are going to break a world record. And there were times when I looked at that world record and wondered if I could ever get even close.

"But I did think I was going well enough to get close to 20:30, and I felt so great from the start that the longer the race went on the more confident I became of my chances."

O'Sullivan also became only the second Irish woman to add her name to the official IAAF list of world records, the first being Sonia O'Sullivan with her 2,000 metre record in Edinburgh eight years ago.

There was a brief scare afterwards when the dope testers were nowhere to be found (and yet necessary for world-record ratification). Three hours later the problem was sorted and the time will now be forwarded for official recognition in the coming weeks.

O'Sullivan goes into next month's European Championships not just in the form of her life, but also in the form to present a serious medal challenge to even the feared European specialists.

With one world mark already out of the way, Terry McHugh was under less pressure when he stepped into the arena some three hours later. His quest was a record 19th consecutive national title, unprecedented in world athletics, and in line to surpass the 18 titles won by New Zealand triple jumper Dave Norris.

An opening throw of 71.56 metres set McHugh up perfectly, which was just as well because it was the only throw he got.

His second effort ended prematurely when his left knee collapsed moments before the release. Still the best of the rest were left a long way off (Louis Wildenboer was next best in a poor 63.96).

"Of course I never thought I'd see the day when I would win 19 championships, not even after say I'd won my 10th. It was very important to get that first throw and not foul, because I knew that would make it difficult for everyone else."

Next up for McHugh is also the European Championships in Munich.