Mark Carroll showed himself to be in good racing condition with a fluent win over 2,000 metres in a mini-meeting on a warm-up track adjacent to the main Olympic stadium yesterday.

Carroll won a six-man race in five minutes, 04.96 seconds, covering the last 400 metres in 56.30 to shake off the challenge of a Russian athlete. Regrettably, neither David Matthews nor James Nolan was fit enough to run in the 1,000 metres. Matthews was stricken with an infection earlier in the week and has been unable to train for the last five days.

Now the problem appears to have spread to his room-mate Nolan and while the latter is not as badly affected, it is still a source of some concern coming just a week before the start of the track and field programme.

Michael Roche, Ireland's only representative in the boxing championships, has been drawn against a Turkish opponent, Sirat Karagollu, in the first series of bouts in the light-middle division.

It's a difficult draw for the Corkman who, if he wins, will oppose either the Russian Andrei Michine or Frederic Esther of France in the second round.