Under 23's in Debrechen and World Youths in Ostrava. Back in December Joe Sweeney ran a great race to finish thirteenth in the inaugural European cross country championships in Milan. On that occasion Andy Vernon from Great Britain finished one place and one second behind the DSD man. Today at the European under 23 championships in Debrecen Joe finished a superb seventh place in a time of 13:59.01, over five seconds better than his previous best. Just one place behind was that man Vernon again!! This time there was just 0.23 sec. between them. Sweeney ran a very positive race and took the lead with three laps to go, but was overtaken in the closing stages. He can be well pleased with his placing. Well done Joe. Mark Christie was disqualified for a minor indiscretion and will have to await an appeal by the Irish team management. He finished the race cut and bruised in 6th place with spectators at a loss to reason why he should be DQ'd. Earlier in the day Sharon Heveran cleared 1.81m to equal her season’s best in the high jump and duly qualified for the final. There was no luck for the two Irish competitors in the high jump at the World Youth championships in Ostrava. Barry Pender cleared 1.95m for 18th place in his qualifying group, while Koroush Fouroghi was fifth in his group after clearing 2.04m.
