Susan Smith Walsh bade an emotional farewell to domestic athletics by completing an admirable 100 and 400 metres hurdles double in the TNT national track and field championships at the Morton Stadium yesterday.

After winning the first of her races, the 400 metres, Smith Walsh, one of the enduring personalities of the sport here, announced that she would retire after competing in the Olympic Games.

"I made up my mind last year that I would finish after Sydney, and while it's never easy to say goodbye I intend to stick with it," she said.

She went out in much the same manner as she entered - hurdling with a fluency which put her apart from the opposition on a day when Tom McGuirk, another who has contributed to the improvement in hurdling standards, also took his leave of a stage he has graced so well.

Like Smith Walsh, he will exit after the Olympics and while he failed in his stated objective of running the first sub 50-second race in the history of the championships, his success in the 400 metres hurdles was conclusive enough to brook any argument.

So, too, were the victories of Sonia O'Sullivan and Mark Carroll who in just over four weeks will spearhead the Irish challenge in Australia. Running her first 800 metres race in three years, O'Sullivan proved that she retains enough of her basic speed to prevail at this level. Then, just over an hour later, she came back on track to win the 1,500 metres.

The early pace in the shorter race was sufficient to relegate the favourite to the back of the field but once it levelled out after 250 metres she was up and away from the pursuit.

Aoife Byrne, giving substance to her reputation as one of the brighter prospects in the sport here, returned career best figures of two minutes 6.07 seconds in relegating Freda Davoren to third place. Yet, she was still about 15 metres adrift as O'Sullivan swept across the finish line in 2:04.71.

Afterwards O'Sullivan said she was "just a little nervous" before the start. "Nobody is ever assured of winning a race and not having run at 800 metres since 1997, I couldn't afford to be complacent about this one," she said. "The early pace was a bit hot but once I was into my stride I was happy enough."

O'Sullivan was on more familiar terrain when she lined up for the 1,500 metres and it showed as she took control of the race at an early stage to finish well clear in a time of four minutes 9.37 seconds, some two seconds outside her championship best.

If there was never much doubt about the eventual winner, the battle for the silver medal was quite absorbing. And with Elaine Fitzgerald paying the price of her ambition in chasing O'Sullivan in the early stages, Geraldine Nolan came through to finish second in her best run for some time.

As expected, Mark Carroll turned the men's 5,000 metres into a procession. Only Joe McAllister, showing courage beyond his 19 years, offered any semblance of competition in the early stages and, fittingly, the Belfast runner was rewarded with the silver medal.

Long before halfway, however, he had capitulated in the unenviable task of attempting to keep the pressure on the Corkman and for the second half of the race the only point at issue was Carroll's winning margin. In the end he had almost 31 seconds to spare when crossing the line in 13 minutes 55.76 seconds, modest enough by top standards but wholly sufficient on the day.

"I felt great - there were no problems," said Carroll who completes his Olympic build-up over 1,500 metres at Berlin on September 1st. "It was a good tempo race for me, now all I have to do is put the finishing touches to my preparations."

James Nolan was an authoritative winner of the 800 metres in one minute 46.83 seconds after front-running the race from the off. Behind him David Matthews paid the price of an ill-judged opening 400 metres when he was run out of second place by Daniel Caulfield.

Out in the field, Nick Sweeney resisted the challenge of his Olympic team-mate John Menton to retain his discus title in emphatic style. But the performance of the championships in this area belonged to Terry McHugh at the opening session on Saturday.

McHugh's new relaxed philosophy is paying dividends and he illustrated the point when establishing a championship best of 80.27 metres in winning the javelin title for a remarkable 17th year in a row.

By contrast, Brendan Reilly had to settle for 2.20 metres in retaining his high jump title but with his wife Sarah completing an impressive sprint double, it was still a highly gratifying weekend for the family.

Detaching herself from the controversy over her qualifications to represent Ireland in the Olympics, she displayed impressive character in repelling challenges from first Emily Maher and later Ciara Sheehy to win a riveting 200 metres race on Saturday. Victory came marginally easier in the 100 metres in which Maher, maturing rapidly this season, finished second.

It was no coincidence that the two 400 metres races produced championship records, with Tomas Coman posting a time of 46.56 seconds and Karen Shinkins powering to victory in the women's equivalent in 52.54. Given the background, the women's 5,000 metres was always going to be an absorbing battle and so it proved as Breda Dennehy dug deep over the last 400 metres to beat Una English in 15 minutes 25.32 seconds.

English, driven by sheer determination, also finished well inside the Olympic standard with a time of 15.26.69 but ultimately, didn't have the pace to stay with the leader when the chips were down on the last lap.

Britain's triple jump world record holder Jonathan Edwards, battling to return to form ahead of the Olympics, made the best leap in the world this year at a meeting in Leverkusen yesterday.

Bouncing back from an ankle injury that ruled him out of the British Olympic trials a week ago, Edwards jumped 17.62 metres on his second jump to better the year's previous best, set by Italian Fabrizio Donato in June, by two centimetres. World champion Charles Friedek, competing on his home ground, took second with 17.14 metres.

Edwards' winning leap was a sharp improvement on his own best so far in 2000 of 17.36, set at this month's Zurich Grand Prix.