PAUL HESSION and Eileen O'Keeffe produced recordbreaking performances of exceptional quality when they ran faster and threw further than ever before to win titles at the National Track and Field Championships at Santry yesterday.

O'Keeffe turned Irish women's hammer throwing inside out when she scaled brilliant new heights in winning her seventh successive title, the 26-year-old Kilkenny thrower having a dream series of inspired efforts, breaking her own existing Irish record of 69.44 metres with five of her six throws, the best of which was a massive 73.21 metres that shoots her up the ladder of the world ranking list.

And no sooner had the ink dried on that performance than 23-year-old Galway man Paul Hession turned in an electrifying performance to regain his 200 metres crown with an outstanding 20.30 seconds.

"I'm absolutely thrilled with that" said Hession soon after crossing the line. And well he might be happy as this was yet another indication of how well the man from Athenry has been sprinting all season. His time yesterday smashed his own six-day-old mark of 20.44 which he ran in Sheffield last Sunday.

"Conditions in Sheffield were not perfect and so I knew that I was capable of going faster" said Hession who has made exceptional progress this year, both indoors and out. In fact this was his seventh Irish record since last February, four of them outdoors, two in the 100m and two in the 200m.

Yesterday Hession was in super form, winning his heat in 20.86 and then exploding off the blocks in the final and running like a scared rabbit all the way down the finishing straight to win by clear daylight.

It was obvious from the margin of victory that the time was fast but no one knew for sure what his time was as the electronic clock did not stop and Hession was giving an interview at the side of the track when his record time was announced.

"Now I can give you a different interview" said the medical student. On a more serious not Hession said that he was really looking forward to the World Championships in Osaka. "I just want to get into them there and if things go well I could make the final but it's a very competitive event." Hession won by a wide margin of 1.3 seconds from David Hynes of Menapians AC and will today run in the 100 metres.

O'Keeffe's performances also saw her beat the A standard for the World Championships next month when she will become the first Irish woman thrower to compete at that level. It's also the A standard for the Beijing Olympics next year and her appearance there will also be a first for a female Irish hammer thrower.

Her competition came at the very start of the meeting at high noon, well before any of the other action got under way with only a couple of dozen onlookers present. But that did not in the least intimidate O'Keeffe who was determined to make amends after missing the standard of 69.50m by just four centimetres when winning the European Cup in Finland last month.

Naturally O'Keeffe was thrilled with her performance. "When I just failed to get the standard in Finland it made me more determined than ever because I was very keen to and for it to actually come so easy today is just fantastic."

Later in the programme O'Keeffe completed a double by also winning the discus with 44.75 metres. Her next major assignment in the hammer will be the World Student Games in Bangkok and from there will travel on to Osaka where she could make the final.

Roisin McGettigan from Sli Cualann in Wicklow accomplished two unique achievements yesterday, she won the first woman's national 3,000m steeplechase and did so without any opponents . . . the first time that has ever happened.