Fantastic Fourth Place for Irish Women's Team

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Fantastic Fourth Place for Irish Women's Team

18 June 2006

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A magnificent 4th place overall at the European Cup for women in Prague ensures Ireland remain in Division 1 for next year.In the final event of the meeting the 4x400, the team finished 2nd and smashed the Irish record with 3.31.51. The quartet of Michelle Carey, Elaine McCaffrey, Ciara Sheehy, Joanne Cuddihy ran magnificently to easily break the old record of 3.32.24 set in Sydney Olympics 2000. This performance is sure to guarantee them inclusion in the Irish team for the forthcoming European Championships in Gothenburg. Helping the team to such a significant result were Ciara Sheehy 3rd 200 metres in 23.58; Aoife Byrne 4th 4.14.08 1500 metres : Deirdre Ryan 4th 1.89 high jump and Eileen O'Keeffe 3rd 65.35 hammer. Results

200 metres Ciara Sheehy 3rd 23.58 ( +0.8 ) SB
1500 metres Aoife Byrne 4th 4.14.08 PB
5000 metres Jolene Byrne 5th 16.16.10 SB
100 hurdles Mairead Murphy 8th 14.43 ( +1.0 ) PB
High Jump Deirdre Ryan 4th 1.89 metres SB
Long Jump Kelly Proper 7th 5.78 metres
Shot Laura Cogan 6th 13.39 metres PB
Hammer Eileen O'Keeffe 3rd 65.35 metres
4x 400 Ireland 2nd 3.31.51 NR

After day one of the European Cup Division 1 in Prague the Irish team were well placed in 5th position. While there were no individual winners four athletes produced outstanding performances to finish 2nd in their events and in addition at the end of the day a splendid new national 4x100 metres record was set. Joanne Cuddihy had a wonderful new personal best of 51.63 for the 400 metres and is now just outside the world A standard of 51.50. In the 400 metres hurdles Michelle Carey was 2nd in 57.20 to confirm her rising status. Anna Boyle was 2nd to the great Kim Geveart in the 100 metres in 11.56. Fionnuala Britton confirmed her recent breakthrough in the steeplechase with another fine ffort of 9.56.03. The relay team which broke the record with 44.40 ( previous record 44.68 from the same meeting last year ) was Emily Maher, Anna Boyle, Ailis McSweeney, Ciara Sheehy. Other performances as follows: