European 1500m bronze medallist Ciara Mageean will line up in the Morton Games at Santry Stadium on Friday as she eyes the Irish 800m record.
This will be UCD athlete Mageean’s last race before going to the Rio Olympics and she will be targeting Rose-Anne Galligan’s Irish record of 2:00.58, which she set in 2013.
Mageean will face competition from the likes of Australia’s Brittany McGowan and Great Britain’s Alexandra Bell.
Paul Robinson (St Coca’s) will mount the Irish challenge in the blue riband event on Friday – the Morton mile.
A top international field in this event includes 2011 Morton mile winner Jordan McNamara (USA) and his compatriot Kyle Merber, who won the 2014 Cork City Sports Mile.
The women’s mile sees the late addition to the field of Katie Mackey (USA), who finished sixth at the US trials in the 5000m.
Great Britain’s 2011 world 1500m silver medallist Hannah England is also a late inclusion.
All of Ireland’s top female sprinters - including Amy Foster (City of Lisburn), Joan Healy (Bandon), Niamh Whelan (Ferrybank) and Catherine McManus (DCH) - will line up in the women’s 100m, while Marcus Lawler (SLOT) features in the men’s 100m.
David Gillick (DSD) will be in the men’s 400m.T homas Barr (Ferrybank) has withdrawn as a precaution from the 400m hurdles due to a slight injury in order to protect himself from further damage in the lead-up to Rio.
The event will still feature Trinidad and Tobago’s 2013 world champion Jehue Gordon.
Meanwhile Elizabeth Morland (Cushinstown) has been forced to withdraw from the heptathlon at the World U20 Championships in Poland.
Morland was in ninth place after two events of the heptathlon but had to pull out due to a knee injury.
She had clocked 13.84 for the 100m hurdles and 1.68m in the high jump.
