Mark English (UCD AC) continued the momentum of the Irish team on day one of the European Athletics Championships in Zurich. None
He powered to victory in his heat of the 800m in a time of 1.47.38 to qualify automatically for the semi-finals.
English made all the right moves as he could afford to coast down the finishing straight to a comfortable victory. His time of 1.47.38 was the fastest of all the qualifiers for the semi-final stage.
English said “I am delighted with that, everything went to plan. I wanted to sit in second or third until 200m to go and then go for it. I could afford to ease off over the last 20m, I felt fresh.”
Team mate Declan Murray was drawn in heat three and despite being in a good position with a 150m to go he finished out of the qualifiers in seventh place in a time of 1.50.01.
Murray commented afterwards “I put myself in a good position with 150m to go, I just didn’t have it the legs over the last part which is disappointing, I just ran out of gas.”
10,000m
Fionnuala Britton (Kilcoole AC) contested the women’s 10,000m final in a week where she will also run the Marathon Cup. The opening couple of kilometres were run at a pedestrian pace with all the lead protagonists still in contention. Britton was content to sit mid-pack as almost the entire field passed through half way in 16.26.
With just over 3 laps remaining Clemence Calvin of France started to inject some pace as Britton started to struggle with the surge in pace. Jo Pavey of Great Britain looked comfortable in second before unleashing a kick of her own to win the title in a time of 32.22.29.
Britton at this stage was locked in battle for the minor places as she battled all the way to the line to finish eight in a season’s best of 32.32.45.
Commenting afterwards Britton said “I am disappointed with that; I should have run much better, I couldn’t go with the change in pace with 3 laps remaining. I have the marathon next so it’s about recovering now and doing my best in that.”
Progress
Britton’s performance concludes an exciting first day of competition for the Irish team at these championships. High Performance Director Kevin Ankrom said “It has been a very encouraging day for us, those athletes we expected to qualify did and for those that didn’t they were competitive, with for some was their first senior championships. We are looking for these championships to form an integral part of their performance development towards Rio 2016 and beyond.”
Taken from Athletics Ireland.
