Big weekend for athletes

THIS Saturday's NI/Ulster Senior Track/Field Championships in Antrim, promises to deliver the highest standards of competition in years, with a quality entry enhanced - for the NI qualified athletes at least - by the championships also doubling as the Commonwealth Games Trials and offering a £2,010 prize fund for those NI athletes who achieve the designated NI designated standards.

Among those chasing honours and cash will be City of Derry Spartans duo Jason Smyth and Tom Carey who will go in the sprints and 400 hurdles respectively.

Both are genuine medal hopes with Smyth, back from an extended Florida based training camp, in brilliant form and given decent conditions this weekend capable of threatening the NI 100m record of 10.35 secs.

Carey missed some time with injury early in the year but has recently bounced back to near his best, running around 52secs for the one lap hurdles event and he hopes to be in medal contention come Saturday.

The Antrim meeting also hosts the U18 and U20 championships on Saturday with several serious local medal contendors expected to be in action.

While the quality action action continues in Antrim on Sunday with Round 1 of the National League set to feature a large number of the country's top clubs.

City of Derry Spartans mens squad make their Premier Division debut, following their emphatic Division 1 success last year and while not expected to be at full strength this weekend, the red vests will be keen to maximise their points.

The clubs Womens squad will compete in Division 1 again with designs to make the league final and seriously challange for promotion.

The latter may be a season or so away yet as many of their talented Juveniles are too young for this competition but the experience of contesting a quality League will surely reap dividends in the future.