Cleirigh Buttner and Lally brilliant in Bygoszcz

Cleirigh Buttner and Lally make European 800m final

Siofra Cleirigh Buttner (DSD) and Alanna Lally (UCD) brightened up Bygoszcz with classy runs to advance to the women’s 800m final at the European U23 Athletics Championships today (July 13).

It proved to be a challenging day one for Irish athletes but Cleirigh Buttner and Lally saved the best for last and stepped up to the big occasion.

Lally (UCD) ran a personal best in heat 2 of the women’s 800m to finish third in a personal best of 2:05.54. She then watched on for the final heat and Siofra Cleirigh Buttner – qualification for the final was the first two in each heat and two fastest qualifiers.

Cleirigh Buttner dutifully showed composure in what proved to be a bit of a ‘wind tunnel’ in the big open stadium qualifying automatically in second in 2:06.02.

"It was surprisingly windy out there," said the DSD athlete and Villanova student calmly afterwards. !I just tried to cover moves. I comfortably came through in the last 400m."

On the fantastic achievement of two Irish women making the final she said: "Yeah, it’s about time. A few years ago we has some great 800m runners.There was a bit of a gap there for the talent we have so It’s good to have Alanna to come with me here."

You can watch a video interview on Facebook HERE

For tomorrow's action and results click HERE

Results

European U23 Athletics Championships, Bydgoszcz, Poland

Women

100m

Heat 2

6th Sarah McCarthy (Mid Sutton) 12.19

800m

Heat 2

3rd Alanna Lally (UCD) 2:05.54 q

Heat 3

2nd Siofra Cleirigh Buttner (DSD) 2:06.02 Q

Pole Vault

Group A

10th Sarah McKeever (DSD) 3.85m

Men

400m

Heat 1

8th Brandon Arrey (Blarney Inniscarra) 53.00

Heat 3

4th Harry Purcell (Trim) 48.04

Heat 4

6th Andrew Mellon (Crusaders) 47.38 (q)

1500m

Heat 1

14th Kevin Kelly (St Coca’s) 3:56.12

Heat 2

13th Andrew Coscoran (Star of the Sea) 3:52.47

Shot Put

Group A

13th John Kelly (Finn Valley) 16.10m

Hammer

Group A

10th Adam King (Iveragh) 63.86m

Group B

11th Owen Russell (St Andrew’s) 62.28m