McKee opts out of Dakar meeting

McKee may be joined in Ireland's 4x400m squad by Paul Hession

Belfast 400 metre runner Paul McKee has abandoned his plan to open his season this weekend at the Grand Prix meeting in Dakar, Senegal.

Instead, McKee plans to have a low-key outing over 200m in Sunday's opening round of the National Track and Field League 2008 an Antrim Forum.

The 30-year-old will have his first 400m races of the summer in Germany on 27 May and 30 May.

McKee returned from a training stint in Portugal earlier this week.

The Belfastman was in Monte Gordo at a training camp along with several other Irish Olympic hopefuls and a number of other athletes from his Scottish-based training group.

"It went very well. At those training camps, you always have those one or two sessions which are fairly key to the trip and those went very well," McKee told BBC Sport.

"I did a 350m time trial and my time for the opening 200m was faster than I ran in any 200m race last year.

"The speed is coming along and I'm looking forward to that trip to Germany later in the month."

In addition to chasing a place in the individual 400m at the Beijing Olympics, McKee is also hoping to be part of an Irish 4x400m challenge.

David Gillick and Brian Doyle, who were both in Portugal, will be part of that squad and there is also the possiblity that Paul Hession could also boost Ireland's challenge.

"Hesh said he will consider running the 4x400m at the Europa Cup which would be a great boost.

"He looked in tremendous form in Portugal and I expect him to run personal bests fairly early in the season," added McKee.