Irish hang tough with good performances at Euro U23s

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Irish hang tough with good performances at Europeans

The evening session produced some battling displays by Irish athletes highlighted by five athletes qualifying for finals and Barry Keane (Waterford) 9th in a high-quality men’s 10,000m at the European U23 Athletics Championships in Gavle, Sweden (July 11).

Barry Keane produced a personal best of 29:01.57 to finish 9th in a race won by France’s Jimmy Gressier, who won the European U23 cross country last December. Garry Campbell (Dunleer) finished 19th in 30:24.94 to surpass his ranking.

The sprinters continue to shine and Ciara Neville (Emerald) and Molly Scott (SLOT) made the final of the 100m with terrific displays into a headwind. Neville finished third in 11.75 to qualify automatically for the final with Scott fifth in 11.78 – qualifying as a fastest non-automatic. Unfortunately Gina Akpe-Moses (Blackrock Louth) didn’t advance to the final, finishing 6th in her semi-final in 11.90.

Nadia Power (Templeogue) powered to the women’s 800m final finishing second in the last semi-final in 2:05.36. Jenna Bromell (Emerald) finished fifth in heat 1 in 2:08.44 and Louise Shanahan (Leevale) was fourth in heat 2 in 2:08.31.

Niamh Fogarty (Raheny Shamrock) was outstanding in the field producing a personal best performance of 52.19m in the discus to qualify for the final.

Eilish Flanagan (Carmen Runners) was another to produce and advance to a final in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase in 10:19.19 for a comfortable fourth place in heat 1.

There was triple joy for the 100m hurdlers with Sarah Quinn (St Colman’s South Mayo), Kate Doherty (DSD), Molly Scott (SLOT) all advancing to the semi-finals. Sarah Quinn produced a pb of 13.73 seconds to finish second and qualify automatically. Molly Scott also advanced automatically in fourth in 14.29 while Kate Doherty (DSD) got through as a fastest non-automatic finishing fifth in her heat in 14.05.

Anu Awonusi (SLOT) threw 15.77m in the shot put to finish 26th overall. Sean Roth (DSD) cleared 5.05m in the pole vault and just missed clearing 5.20m which would have seen him into the final. He finished 16th overall.

Luke McCann (DCH) and Cathal Doyle (Clonliffe Harriers) didn’t progress in their respective 1500m semi-finals. McCann finished tenth in his heat but was subsequently disqualified for rule 163.2 (b) while Doyle finished 10th in 3:49.25.

Elizabeth Morland (Cushinstown) threw a big shot put pb of 12.28m and then ran 25.85 for the 200m. She currently lies in 14 place at the halfway with a points tally of 2,488 points.

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