The schools track and field season got under way at the CIT track on Saturday with the South Munster championships held in pleasant weather conditions. Personal best performances were the order of the day, and none was more convincing than that achieved by Kevin Barry of Mayfield Community School (and Leevale) in the senior 800m. The field went through the bell in 58 seconds, with Barry content to sit back in fourth position. With 300m to go he eased his way up to the leaders, took the lead with 200m to go, and then raced right away to win in a time of 1:56.9, with Martin Byrne of St. Aidans second and Mark Carroll of North Mon third. This was a promising start to the season for Barry who had practically given up the sport earlier in the year, and has only been back in training for the past five weeks or so. His father Kevin, a founder member of Leevale athletic club, and a well known figure at every athletics event, would have been thrilled with this performance, but sadly he lost his life in a road traffic accident last September. Leading junior hurdler Derval O’Rourke of Regina Mundi, and also of Leevale, returned to competition after injury problems and put in a perfect display of hurdling technique to win the senior event.