Irish athletes continue to shine in Torun

Irish athletes continued to shine in Torun this evening with Phil Healy, Mark English, and Cian McPhillips all progressing from their respective semi-final/heats.

Phil Healy led this evening’s charge where she advanced to the European Indoors 400-metre final after winning her semi-final.

The Cork woman started strongly, challenging early pace-setter Amarachi Pipi of Great Britain before finishing in a time of 52:41 as she edged out Romania's Andrea Miklos by thousands of a second to win the evening race.

The Bandon AC athlete can now rest up and prepare for a European final which is scheduled for 19.25pm tomorrow.

Finn Valley’s Mark English is back in yet another European semi-final as he claimed 3rd place and an automatic qualifying spot in the heats of the Men’s 800m. English, who was ideally placed looked very comfortable for much of the race and picked up down the home straight to hold onto the final qualifying spot (1.49.79).

He’ll be joined in the semi-final tomorrow by Longford AC man Cian McPhillips who put in a performance that belied his years by coming home in a controlled second place finish in the second of the 800m heats. The 18-year-old crossed the line in 1.49.98.

Kildare man John Fitzsimons will take great heart from his performance in the 4th heat of the 800m. Fitzsimons, who is only recently back from a long-term injury layoff finished in a blanket finish for the final qualifying spot, just missing out in a time of 1.51.00.

Both English and McPhillips be back in action for the semi-final tomorrow at 18.25pm.

Attention now 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