It has been a while since any of us posted anything on the site. With the European Indoors next weekend and our double European champion, David Gillick, taking to the boards it seems like the perfect time to kick things off again.

Last year was a tough pill for us to swallow and it took a lot of time to sink in that we were not going to be competing in the Olympics, for some of us it was our last shot and for others only the beginning.

All is not lost however, in fact there is a lot to be hopeful about. Last year saw a new National Senior Record by David Gillick while Brian Greagan equalled the 8 year old National Junior Record. We also saw a new Schools record by Curtis Woods the newest member and sensation on the Irish circuit. This good form has continued into 2009 as we saw Billy Ryan win the AAA Championships in a time of 48.13, although he was unfortunately disqualified a little later, but will definitely be someone to watch this summer.

For the year ahead everyone will be doing there own preparations for various championships be it Junior, U23 or the World Championshps in Berlin. The target for the 4*4 in Berlin is tough but with the list of athletes under the 48 seconds mark growing all the time we have high hopes of translating this into more athletes under the crucial 47 seconds mark. One thing is for sure, there will be a relay team at the Europa cup come the 22 of june. Who will form the team will be decided over the coming months and I personally hope to challenge once again for my place and give it everything on the day.

For now best of luck to David. I wish him look in the next few days.

Gordon Kennedy
Project 400

The IAAF have rejected the Irish team’s request to sanction a last-minute 4×400m relay at the Lucerne Grand Prix in Switzerland this coming Wednesday. Following the cancellation of the last sanctioned race, this was the last and only possibility of the team meeting the required standard to qualify for the Olympics in the team event.

With the hopes of the team competition now faded, the project400 members concentration will return to their individual efforts. David Gillick has already achieved the A qualification standard for Beijing and continued his good form with a 45.52 second run at the Golden League meet in Rome last Friday.

Paul McKee is currently one second off the A qualification standard and has lined up several races over the coming week in the hopes of achieving the time before the deadline expires. For further details on his competitions please visit the BBC Sports page to read more.

Elsewhere, Brian Doyle ran an excellent 47.14 at the Cork city sports on Saturday. Brian Murphy and Gordon Kennedy were competing in Uden, Netherland and Ghent, Belgium over the weekend and a report on their results will be up in the next few days.

The AAI National Senior Track and Field Championships will be held next weekend at Santry in Dublin and project400 members will be out in force over the two days. There will also be live coverage on the Sunday by RTE, more details to follow during the week.

We got the bad news this morning that the 4*400m relay in the Salamanca Grand Prix on Wednesday night has been cancelled.

As things currently stand there are no additional qualification opportunities on the IAAF list. To say we are upset would be an understatement, but we will do what we can to see if another attempt can be made in another meet.

Paul McKee will be running in the individual 400m race at the Grand Prix.