Phil Healy (400m) and Nadia Power (800m) have secured their places in the semi-finals of their respective events at the European Indoor Championships.
Healy dominated heat 5 and claimed her place in the 400m semi-final by setting the fastest qualifying time. The Bandon AC athlete posted an impressive ‘from-the-front’ performance to clock 52.00 which was just one hundredth of a second outside her personal best. She will go in the semi-final later this evening (18.33pm Irish time).
Sophie Becker was in action in the second of the 400m heats and was unlucky not to progress with a 53.31 which was just outside of her personal best. The Raheny Shamrock AC athlete was in contention for the automatic qualifying places for much of the race but had to settle for 3rd place in her heat which was not enough to progress to the semi-final stage.
Sharlene Mawdsley went out hard and claimed a front ranking position at the bell in heat 7 of the 400m. The Newport AC athlete faced a tough task to make the semi-final but battled bravely to come home in 5th in a time of 53.68 which was just outside of her PB.
Nadia Power was ultra-impressive in negotiating her way through round one of the 800m heats, securing her place in tomorrow’s semi-final with a 2.03.16 performance. The DCH AC athlete will be back in action for the semi-final which is scheduled for 18.00pm tomorrow (Saturday 6th).
National 800m record holder Siofra Cleirigh Buttner went in heat 3 of the 800m and looked well in contention until the final lap but was unable to reel in the eventual first three athletes home. She crossed the line in a time of 2:04.47.
Georgia Hartigan made her senior debut in heat 6 but was just run out of the top 3 qualifying spots to eventually finish 4th (2:04.74).
Evening Session:
All eyes will be on the semi-final of the Women’s 400m where Phil Healy will look to make it to tomorrow’s final. She is set to take to the starting clocks at 18.33pm (Irish Time – Live on RTE2).
The Men’s 800 is set to start at 18.55pm where we’ll see Irish 800m record holder Mark English line up with in the heats with recent rivals Cian McPhillips and John Fitzsimons.
Attention then turns to the Men’s 1500m final (20.35pm Irish time) where Paul Robinson and Andrew Coscoran will go toe to toe with the elite of Europe’s 1500m athletes.
Full Result: https://results.european-athletics.com/irs/en/results/athletics/result-800m-women-rnd1-000600-.htm