A VISIBLY drained Mark English finished well outside the medals in the 800m at Sunday’s European U23 Athletics Championships in Tallinn, Estonia. Uniquely, there were two Donegal men in the eight-man final, with Karl Griffin claiming the Tír Chonaill bragging rights with a sixth place finish in 1:48.79.
English had gone into the meeting as one of the two favourites to take the gold medal, but it was Poland’s Artur Kuciapski who ran a clever race to win in 1:48.11, while the Letterkenny man trailed home in eighth place with a 1:50.42 clocking.
Ireland’s men finished an excellent fifth in Sunday’s 4x100m relay final, breaking the national record they set the previous day with a 39.89 mark. The women also broke the Irish record in the heats, but failed to finish in the final.
On Saturday, Britain’s Leon Reid took a silver medal in the 200m with a 20.63 mark. The Birchfield harrier qualified to represent Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow last year through a mother born in the Six Counties.
Earlier, the crowds turned up to watch the milers, but it was the female steeplechasers who stole the show at the Letterkenny AC Sub 4 Challenge. American Jamie Cheever took the victory in 9:40.99, an Irish all-comers’ record for the women’s 3,000m steeplechase, but behind her three Irish women set personal bests for what is no longer a Cinderella event in this country.
Newcastle athlete Kerry O’Flaherty came hoping to improve on her recent Northern Ireland record and left with a qualifying time, not only for this year’s World Championships, but also the Olympic Games in Rio next year. Her 9:42.61 was a nine-second improvement on her previous best in Spain last month and also well inside World (9:44) and Olympic (9:45) standards.
Cork woman Michele Finn, with a 9:43.34 mark, also qualified for both events, while Meath’s Sara Treacy should be in Rio too, thanks to running 9:44.14, but will have to try again for a standard to reach next month’s Worlds in Beijing.
However, the statistics do not tell the full story of a pulsating race – the fastest women’s steeplechase ever seen in Ireland. Poland’s Matylda Kowal was the early pacemaker before Sara Treacy took up the running. Kerry O’Flaherty was always close at hand and led with two laps to go before slipping back to third on the last lap.
A late surge on the homestraight was sufficient to see the Down woman snatch the runner-up spot from Michele Finn in the final metres. Sara Treacy took fourth ahead of British number one Lennie Waite, who recorded a personal best of 9:45.94 in fifth.
The rain held off until the final event, the mile, as Minnesota native Jon Peterson failed to break four minutes by the blink of an eye for the second consecutive year. On the positive side, the former UC Davis student improved from fourth to first this year and, in the process, took another 13 hundredths off his best for the distance.
There were other American victories, with Philadelphia resident Sam Ellison winning the 800m in 1:49.72 and Minnesota’s Carl Stones cruising home in the 3,000m with an 8:27.28 timing; South Africa’s Lebokeng Sesele traded wins with Zimbabwean Tatenda Tsumba in the sprints and another Springbok, Armand Van Zyl, got the decision in the 400m in 49.53 after a photo finish with Lagan Valley’s Ben Maze.
England’s Joe Dunderdale won the javelin while there were Irish victories in the women’s 400m thanks to Sinéad Denny and Vivian Fleischer in the long jump to send an appreciative crowd home happy after a fine night’s athletics.
