McKee misses out on Olympic place

Paul McKee failed to get the time needed to qualify for Beijing

Paul McKee's faint hopes of qualifying for the Olympics ended in Barcelona despite his latest season's best.

McKee's time of 46.17 seconds for the 400m cut .37secs off his best time this season but it was still .62 outside the Beijing 'A' standard.

Slovakian Peter Snava took victory in 46.11 after a race which included a clash of arms with the Belfast athlete in the closing 30 metres.

"I am not sure what is next for me but it was an encouraging run," said McKee.

The deadline for Olympic Games qualification marks is Sunday and a number of Irish athletes are making late bids for selection at the National Championships at Santry over the weekend.

Derry sprinter Jason Smyth is already guaranteed a trip to Beijing for the Paralympics and he may have been somewhat disappointed with his fourth place in the 200m on Saturday.

With David Gillick not in action in the event, Darragh Graham took victory in 21.38 ahead of David Hynes (21.47) and Derek Duff (21.53) with Smyth .29secs down on his personal best in 21.73.

The Londonderry athlete has been bothered by a knee injury recently and that may have been a contributory factor to his performance.

St Malachy's athlete Joe McAllister took third place in the 10,000m won by Beijing-bound Martin Fagan in 29:16.53.

Early leader Mark Kenneally was second in 29:28.56 while former champion McAllister clocked 30:22.21.

Donegal athlete Mary McCloone won the triple jump with 11.71m which left her ahead of Ballymena & Antrim's Mary Devlin (11.37).

However, star of the first day of action was hammer thrower Eileen O'Keeffe who showed that she is in good nick ahead of the Olympics by producing four 70-metre plus throws including her best mark of 72.75m.