from Athletics Northern Ireland Darren McBrearty (Letterkenny AC) clocked 1:47.87 to win the 800m in Vienna last night which is a European lead. Both times are inside the qualifying standards for the European indoor championships in Paris next month.
McBrearty was running his second half in two days, having finished a close second to his clubmate Mark English in Cardiff on Sunday. His time then was 1:48.88. His previous best indoor time was 1:51.29.
Newcastle athlete Kerry Harty has had a steady start to her indoor season and yesterday evening she finished 4th in a good field in Vienna over 1500m in 4m22.19 seconds, only 1.2 seconds outside her indoor best.
The race was won by top Czech athlete Marcela Lustigova in 4m15.09 with Austrian Jennifer Wenth in 2nd in 4m 18.63 and Turk Dudu Karakaya in 3rd in 4m 19.62.
Harty was pleased with the performance, starting 7th ranked on paper, the early pace was very swift and didn’t help the final times with the leaders through 400m in 64 seconds. She was closing all the time on third as the finishing line approached.
Harty had started her indoor season in Cardiff a couple of weekends ago and came home 2nd to Celia Taylor in the Welsh Indoor 1500m Champs in a time of 4m 24.7. She followed this up with another 2nd place, this time to Gemma Turtle in the Welsh Indoors 3000m on Saturday past in a time of 9m 25.15 only 2 seconds outside her indoor best.
Meanwhile, another Newcastle athlete, Eoghan Totten came home in 13th in the Welsh Senior Indoors on Saturday on his 18th birthday over 3000m in a time of 8 minutes 53.93, taking a massive 20 seconds off his indoor best from the Odyssey last year.