No Joy for McMullen in Prague

Adam McMullen (Crusaders AC) was the first Irish athletes in action at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague on Thursday, 5th of March. McMullen who was making his debut at this level of international competition contested the long jump qualification. McMullen jumping fifth of the 24 competitors opened his campaign with a solid 7.50m first round effort, his second attempt was not quite as far as he recorded a mark of 7.19m.

McMullen’s third and final effort proved his best as he jumped 7.53m to finish in 17th place. The series of jumps by the Belfast athlete wasn’t enough to make the final; a required distance of 7.79m would have been needed to book a place in the European Indoor Final.

Consistent

Apart from his 7.80m distance that he jumped to qualify for these championships McMullen’s 7.53m and 7.50m marks were his second and third best ever indoors.

Commenting afterwards McMullen said “It was interesting, it was definitely an experience. It wasn’t the jumps I wanted but I’ll take everything I can from this and bring it to future international competitions. It’s nice to stay consistent on the boards, the 7.50’s were quite good, something to work on.”

Day 2

Next in action for the Irish team will be Gerard O’Donnell (Carrick on Shannon AC) who goes in the 60m Hurdles heats at 9.32am IRL time on Friday, 6th of March. Other athletes in action in the morning session tomorrow include Dara Kervick (Clonliffe Harriers AC) – 400m, Ciara Everard (UCD AC – 800m, Declan Murray (Clonliffe Harriers AC) and Mark English (UCD AC).