THE ODDESSY Arena, Belfast played host to the 2010 All-Ireland Senior Indoor Athletics Championships this weekend, where Deirdre Byrne took the 3000m title in a hard run race in which she had to run from the front from start to finish, covering 15 laps of the track.

Her winning time of 9min02sec secured her spot for the World Indoor Championships in Doha in March. She then went on to run a strong 1500m the following day, narrowly missing out on another national title, by finishing in silver position.

Darragh Graham, like Deirdre, went for the sprint double. After an exciting first heat in the 60m, where an electronic fault had disqualified more than half the field, Darragh eventually progressed through to the final to finish in sixth position, in a race that was won by Olympian Paul Hession. It was in the 200m that Darragh showed his class by winning the race, claiming yet another national title for the Wicklow man, a remarkable achievement, considering the 200m final was five minutes after the 60m final.

It was a learning experience, as some of Wickow's top junior athletes made the trip north and the step up to senior competition. The women's 800m saw the Irish international middle distance trio of Ellie Hartnett, Claire Earls and Niamh Kearney all go in the 800m.

Claire and Ellie, both running in the first heat, went off at a blistering pace where the girls finished in times of 2.16 and 2.22 in fifth and seventh position unfortunately missing qualification to the final.

Niamh Kearney went in the second heat and made the automatic qualification to the final by finishing third in a new personal best performance of 2.15.2, shaving half a second of her previous time.

The Greystones native went into the final on the Sunday and produced her best track run to date, destroying her new personal best, set the day before, by over two seconds to finish in fourth place in 2.13.1, narrowly missing out on a medal.

In the men's 800m, UCD/Bray's Richard Owens ran superbly in his heat with his goal of cracking the two-minute mark for the 800m.

In a hotly contested heat he managed to get agonisingly close with a time of two minutes 00.1 seconds, leaving him just outside making the final the following day.

Caoimhe Basquille, another county junior international athlete, managed to get sixth position in her first senior competition with a jump of 1m55cm.

In the sprints Cormac Hanlon and Ferdia Kenny went in the 60m and 200m, Cormac coming back from some absence produce good performances in both heats, a valuable lesson for the young athlete, Ferdia Kenny stepped up and produced a fantastic performance in his 60m heat, however like Darragh, Ferdia made his mark in the 200m, progressing through the heat and making the "B" final where he finished third with the extraordinary feat of running two identical times in heats and final for the second week running.

This weekend also saw the county masters championships take place in Shangannagh, Bray where the overall winners were Mick Byrne of Parnell and Joy Johnson of Inbhear Dee.

Master's Women: 1st. Joy Johnson, 2nd. Eithne Walsh, 3rd. Emer Geraghty, all of Inbhear Dee with Inbhear Dee taking the team gold.

Masters Men O-35: Mick Finnan, Parnell; Brendan Burke, Parnell; Liam Keogh, Parnell

O-40: Eamonn Tilley, Kilcoole; Dominic Horan, Bray Runners; Seán Dunne, Inbhear Dee.

O-45:Mick Byrne, Parnell; Colin Daly, Inbhear Dee; Ben Mooney, Inbhear Dee.

O-50: Martin Francis, Bray Runners; Bill Tyrrell, Parnell; MJ Bolton, Parnell.

O-55: Jim Boland, West Wicklow; Pat McCourt, Inbhear Dee.

O-70: Barry Keane, Bray Runners.

Thanks to Bray AC for hosting the event.

Next weekend sees some of the junior and senior athletes take part in the Leinster Cross Country championships, Co Kilkenny and the Scottish Indoor Junior Championships in Glasgow.