Neville and Healy rise to the occasion and advance

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Neville and Healy rise to the occasion and advance

4 March 2017

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Neville and Healy rise to the occasion

Ciara Neville (Emerald) and Phil Healy (Bandon) were fast out of the blocks this morning and qualified for the women’s 60m semi-finals at the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade.

17-year-old Neville was first up and the Emerald AC sprinter clocked 7.46 to finish fourth in her 60m heat this morning to advance automatically.

"I'm absolutely delighted,” said Neville afterwards. “I ran that race like a final. I thought really hard about competing here, but I decided to come in case this opportunity never came around again. There's more to come."

Phil Healy was equally delighted with her automatic qualification in the 60m after finishing fourth in her heat in 7.39.

"A big Q, that's what I came out here for, so I have to be happy,” said Healy who ran in the 400m heats yesterday. “After the 400, if I let myself think the legs are heavy, then you're fighting a losing battle. You have to believe you're coming out fresh, then it's going to happen."