Busy day 1 for Irish at Euros with extensive RTE coverage

POSTED: July 05 2016

Busy Day 1 in Amsterdam

The European Athletics Championships gets underway tomorrow with a busy schedule for the Irish and extensive live coverage on RTE 2.

Brian Gregan (Clonliffe Harriers), Craig Lynch (Shercock) and David Gillick (DSD) will compete in the individual 400m at 12:35 Irish time. You can get their startlists HERE

Gregan, a former European U23 silver medallist in 2011, is coached by John Shields and won a thrilling national championships in a season’s best of 46.28. He has a personal best of 45.53 and made the semi-finals in 2014 along with being part of the relay team that set two Irish records and finished fifth. He is a sports science graduate from DCU and will be looking to match his performances from Zurich.

Craig Lynch makes his individual debut at this level and ran a personal best of 46.40 to finish second at the recent national championships. He is coached by Jeremy Lyons and is a secondary school science teacher. Lynch has formed the backbone of relay teams in recent years having stepped up from the 100m and 200m.

David Gillick, the Irish record holder with 44.77, has made an excellent return to competitive action and has been guided by Athletics Ireland Regional Development Officer Daniel Kilgallon in Tallaght. Gillick will be looking to use his experience and guide the relay team to more success and an Olympic berth.

Thomas Barr (Ferrybank) and Paul Byrne (St Abban’s) compete in the 400m Hurdles at 14:05 Irish time. You can see their startlists HERE

Barr and Byrne train together in the University of Limerick under the guidance of Haley and Drew Harrison. Barr has a best of 48.65 seconds and famously won the World University Games last year. He has just been returning to action from injury and made his outdoor competitive debut at the national championships – winning his fifth national title.

Paul Byrne made the move down to Limerick to train with Barr and it has paid dividends. Byrne has a personal best of 50.72 seconds and set a national 300m hurdles best of 36.88 back in 2014. He competed in the European U23 Championships in 2011 and makes his senior debut in Amsterdam.

Tomas Cotter (Dunleer) makes his senior championship debut in the 3,000m steeplechase at 16:55. The Louth man has been based in the United States the last number of years and made an NCAA final for Wichita State University. He is guided by long-time coach David Carrie who has made a major impact in Dunleer guiding hundreds of runners across the line in the Dublin Marathon.

Claire Mooney (Naas) and Sinead Denny (DSD) go in the 400m at 12:10 Irish time having had excellent seasons to date. You can see there startlists HERE

Mooney has returned from St John’s University in New York where she has had a breakthrough season clocking 53.17 seconds for the one lap distance.

Sinead Denny has been going from strength to strength over the last number of years and is coached by Paul Opperman who was on the men’s 4x400m relay team at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

Siofra Cleirigh Buttner (DSD) is another to have had an excellent season making the NCAA championships with Villanova and dominating the national 800m – she has a personal best of 2:02.37. You can see her startlist HERE

Cleirigh Buttner, who runs at 17:25, had an exceptional schools career for Colaiste Iosagain where she was unbeaten for six years. She is coached by Gina Procaccio in Villanova who ran with Sonia O’Sullivan during her time there as an athlete.

Wicklow women Fionnuala McCormack (Kilcoole), nee Britton, and Tara Jameson (Sli Cualann) run in the women’s 10,000m final at 18:00. You can see there startlist HERE. McCormack is a two-time European Cross Country Champion and has a European 3,000m indoor bronze medal. She has a best of 31:29.22 and finished an agonising fourth back in 2012. She is currently self-coached alongside her husband Alan McCormack – a former national cross country champion.

Tara Jameson had an excellent last season with Iona College finishing 7th in the NCAA 10,000m final. She has a personal best of 32:52.92 and is coached by Ricardo Santos. This is her senior championships debut.