Lawler battles to 7th in 200m final

Lawler has to settle for seventh

An impressive semi-final set Marcus Lawler up as third fastest qualifier going into tonight's final. Running in lane 5 he ran another impressive curve to be in contention and book his final berth. The St Laurence O’Toole’s man finished second in 20.91 (wind 0.0) behind the impressive Pole Karol Zalewski who won in 20.50.  The Pole went on to win the final in 20.49 but Lawler had to settle for seventh in 20.94 seconds. There was some comfort in that he can return to these championships again in two years time having learned from the experience. 

800m duo make the final

There was double delight as UCD's Karl Griffin and Mark English made the European final tonight. This time it was Karl Griffin who made us sweat. Positioned perfectly through the bell in 53.70 seconds, Griffin hit the front down the back straight and into the top three automatic qualifications. He battled down the home straight but faded slightly to fourth in 1:48.65. Cue the nervous wait as Mark English took to the line in lane 1 for the second semi-final. The Donegal man ran a much more astute semi-final than his heat and held on well to finish third in 1:49.94. "I felt good most of the way. The race went pretty much as I thought it would. Thankfully I had enough left to hold off fourth place.  There's no real front runner in the final. I'm pretty confident going into the final 

I'm so delighted to make it through to the final and I'm looking forward to tomorrow now. You never know what will happen. 

McCarthy just misses long jump final

Sarah McCarthy (Mid Sutton) just missed out on making the final of the women’s long jump final in the morning session finishing 15th overall with a best of 6.10m. Jumping in group A the qualification was set as follows: automatic qualifying (Q) jump was set at 6.50m or at least the 12 best performers (q).

Her first jump was 5.45m and then she had a narrow failure in the second round which looked in excess of 6.20m Under pressure, she dusted herself off and kept her composure, she got out to 6.10m. It was just shy of the 6.19m that would have seen her make the final http://www.european-athletics.org/competitions/european-athletics-u23-championships/2015/athletics/event/womens-long-jump/index.html?v=20150711-152328965

“I’m a bit disappointed, 6.20m was doable” she said afterwards but had the consolation of the women’s 4x100m relay tomorrow. “We have the relay tomorrow though and hopefully we can make the final."

Hargreaves: the tough of the track

Brandon Hargreaves (DSD) dug in for a 12th place finish in the men's 5,000m final in 14:14.76 won in a championship record by Turkey's Ali Kaya in 13:20.16. The DSD athlete returned to the track once more having run in the 10,000m on the first night of the championships.