National Records for both Women’s Relay Teams
The Irish Women’s 4×100m and 4×400m relay have both broken Irish records in the European Athletics Championships In Barcelona this morning.
The 4×100m quartet of Niamh Whelan (Ferrybank AC), Claire Brady (Celbridge AC), Ailis McSweeney (Leevale AC) and Amy Foster (North Down AC) performed superbly and posted a national record time of 43.93. This was good enough for fourth in heat one, one place out of the automatic qualification spots. The second heat however proved to be faster with Belgium and Sweden taking the last qualifying spots. This team with the addition of Derval O’Rourke took a big slice off the Irish record when they placed second in Geneva in June. On this occasion the team clocked 44.27, well inside the 44.68 record set in 2006.
Another National record fell to the women’s 4×400m team who finished in 5th position in heat two in a time of 3:30.11. The team of Marian Andrews (Togher AC), Joanne Cuddihy (Kilkenny City Harriers), Brona Furlong (Slaney Olympic AC) and Michelle Carey (Dundrum South Dublin AC) were in contention throughout the race after a few very strong opening legs but after fighting hard the team again just missed out on a qualifying spot in the final.
The Irish men’s 4×400m relay team of Gordon Kennedy (Tullamore Harriers AC), Brian Murphy (UCC AC), Brian Gregan (Clonliffe Harriers AC) and Steven Colvert (UCD AC) performed well in heat one. The team posted a time 3.07.21 seconds, finishing sixth and outside the three automatic qualification spots.
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