Friday 12th March saw the first day of competition in the World Indoor Championships here in Doha, Qatar! Coaches Lucy Moore and Jim Kidd were up at 6am with the athletes who were on in the early events. All three DSD athletes selected for individual events were in action today! First up was Deirdre Ryan, who cleared 1.85m for 17th place in a high class women's high jump qualifying round. While disappointed not to make the finals, Deirdre matched her competition average for the indoor season. Next up was David Gillick in the 400m. He ran a confident and controlled race to win his heat in 46.72 sec, the second fastest of the morning. Early afternoon saw Hazel Murphy in action in heat 1 of the 3000m. Hazel ran a steady race but was caught for speed over the final kilometre, finishing in 9:17 and again showing how challenging it is to compete at this level. Finally, David ran his semi-finals of the 400m, where he finished second in 46.15 secs, again the second fastest time overall (by two hundreds of a second!), setting himself up for a favourable lane draw in Saturday night's final.

Today, Saturday 13th, sees Nick Hogan in action at 10am (7am Dublin time). He runs the lead off leg in the mens 4x40m relay. Then David Gillick runs again in the final of the 400m at 6.05pm local time (3pm Irish time). It should be shown live on Setanta! Good luck Nick and David!