Joanne's 400m Final is the highlight of Day 4

Close

General

Joanne's 400m Final is the highlight of Day 4

10 August 2006

You're viewing an article from our old website. While we've made efforts to retain all news from past Athletics Ireland websites, this article was created based on the old site's capabilities, so there may be formatting or layout issues on this page.

Joanne's qualification to the 400m final tonight has undoubtedly been the highlight so far in terms of Irish performances at the European Championships. Joanne ran a PB (51.09) to gain her place in the final but was drawn in lane one, which for someone of Joanne's height, meant that it was always going to be an uphill struggle to equal the performance she set in the semi-final. She did her best but ultimately on the night she finished in a time of 51.46 in 8th place. Joanne will however take away not only the experience of competing in a major senior international, but also a PB and the knowledge that the National Record is within her reach. Ireland's two main medal hopes for the championships, Derval O'Rourke and Alistair Cragg breezed through the qualification rounds for their respective events. Derval, running in lane 8, finished second in her heat this morning in a time of 13.03 (-0.5). Meanwhile Alistair Cragg finished a comfortable 3rd in his heat of the 5000m and, holding the fastest time in Europe over this distance, is one of the hot favourites for Sunday's final. Roisin McGettigan narrowly missed out on qualifying for the final of the 3000m steeplechase this morning finishing fifth in the first semi-final with only the first four going through by right. The second semi-final went off fast knowing what they had to do to qualify and in the end Roisin finished 13th overall missing the final by under 2 seconds. Also in the 3000m steeplechase was Fionnualla Britton who continued her good form this season by further lowering her PB to 9:49.2 to gain 11th place in her semi and 17th place overall. Elsewhere today Dave Campbell and Thomas Chamney failed to progress to the semi-final stage of the 800m and ranked 17th and 25th overall. In the sprints Anna Boyle did not succeed in qualifying for the semi-final of the 200m finishing 5th in 23.94 while there was hearbreak for Ciara Sheehy as she pulled up injured on the curve. Meanwhile, Paul Hession, starting in lane 2 of his 200m semi finished 7th in a time of 21.09. It's worth mentioning however that 6 out of the 10 athletes competing today are either 24 or less years of age, with none of the athletes from today over the age of 26. This is a relatively young squad competing at Gothenburg who are gaining valuable experience that can be built on for further progression at international level. The omens are good for Irelands future in international athletics. Photos courtesy of Tim O'Dowd of irishrunner.com