Athletics: Joanne Cuddihy's rise to prominence on the international athletics scene continues to gather pace after she qualified comfortably for the 400-metre final in Gothenburg this evening.
Cuddihy's became the first Irishwoman to make a European Championships final at this distance since Maeve Kyle in 1962 and she managed it in some style with a time of 51.09 seconds, a personal best for the 22-year-old.
Having kept pace with the leaders for the first 250 metres, Shinkins tired slightly in the back straight but had done more than enough to progress to the final, finishing third behind the Russians Olga Zaytseva (50.49) and Tatyana Veshkurova (50.87).
While a medal in tomorrow's final is probably beyond the medical students reach, Shinkins will again be aiming to better Karen Shinkins' Irish record of 51.07 which only just eluded her this evening.
There was further good news for the Irish team in this evening's session as Paul Hession qualified for the 200 metre semi-finals having come through both of today's heats.
Hession ran a virtually identical time (20.80) as he had posted in this morning's first heat to finish third in his race, the 11th fastest qualifier in all. However, he will need to be closer to his personal best of 20.60 if he is to guarantee a place in the final. Paul Brizzel, after initially coming through this morning's heats, pulled up in the second round.
Liam Reale, in the 1500m final, was unable to match the fast pace of leading runners over the final 400m, fading back to eighth position. Reale clocked a time of 3mins 42.65secs as France's Mehdi Baala retained his title in 3:39.02.
Highly-fancied Alistair Cragg and Derval O'Rourke, begin their quest for medals in their qualifying races tomorrow.
Cragg goes into his 5000 metres as the fastest man in the field, although his form since running 13mins 8.97secs at the New York Grand Prix in June has been fairly erratic.
But the 26-year-old South-African born star, has all of the required credentials to lift Ireland's first medal at the championships. Mo Farah will be one of his biggest rivals, the Somalian-born runner having become Britain's second fastest-ever performer with a mark of 13:09.40.
O'Rourke, winner of the world indoor 60m hurdles title in March, has been fighting back from injury since that sensational victory in Moscow.
Now the 25-year-old Jim Kilty-coached star from Cork, will be aiming to challenge for the 100m hurdles medal, although he will face some awesome opposition in the Ullevi stadium.