Sport

Impressive 800 metres by Nolan in Vienna

UCD's James Nolan gave a further indication of his growing status on the international, front when he won the 800 metres at a…

By KATHRYN DAVIS
Mon Feb 17 1997 - 00:00

UCD's James Nolan gave a further indication of his growing status on the international, front when he won the 800 metres at a meet in Vienna on Saturday. Nolan's winning time was one minute 49.62 seconds which was over half a second ahead of British Olympian Craig Winrow, who clocked 1:50.22.

Unfortunately Nolan's time is still outside the qualifying standard for next month's World Indoor Championships in Paris but, given his impressive performance, further opportunities are certain to arise to achieve the necessary 1:48.50 which would secure his nomination for France.

Also at the same meet, Antoine Burke, a clubmate of Nolan, finished second in the high jump with a clearance of 2.23 metres.

Meanwhile on the home front the last major race before the National cross-country championships in Cork on Sunday week, the Liffey Valley 4 x 2 mile Relays for the Tom Brennan Memorial trophy, was held also on Saturday in the Phoenix Park and the hosts, recorded their first victory in the event. Tom O'Connor brought them into an unassailable lead on the opening leg.

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Colm de Burca gave Metro/St Brigid's second spot with the day's fastest time and set a record for the two-lap course but their position was short-lived as Civil Service swept back into second place. But there was no denying Liffey Valley their victory with Larry Callaghan, Chris Brogan and supervet John Cullen all contributing as they finished 54 seconds clear.

Dundrum South Dublin took the women's honours by a narrow margin of just two seconds with schoolgirl Maria Lynch's storming run on the final leg the catalyst for their victory in the 3 x 1 mile event ahead of Dublin City Harriers.

Kenya's Bernard Barmasai narrowly beat Morocco's Mohammed Mourit in the IAAF World Cross Challenge 10.2km men's race in Diekirch, Luxembourg, yesterday for his second victory of the season. Barmnsai won in 30 minutes 41 seconds compared with Mourit's second-place time of 30:43.

Mourit is married to a Belgian and is hoping his Belgian citizenship will be processed in time to compete for his adopted country in next month's World Cross Country championships. A distant third in the race was Germany's Dieter Baumann, the 1992 Olympic 5,000-metres champion, in 30:59.