from Jeremy Lyons It has turned out to be a great morning for Irish athletes at the first session of the European Indoor Championships. Five athletes competed and all successfully negotiated their way through to the next round with the less established stars causing the biggest stir.
Ferrybank’s Kelly Proper fouled her first effort in the qualification of the Women’s Long Jump but then followed that up with a sensational new Irish record of 6.59m in her second to pass the qualifying mark of 6.50m and comfortably qualify for tomorrow’s final. Proper will go into that as the 5th best qualifier and considering this is her first major championships it is a major breakthrough.
Also setting personal bests were the 400m pair of Marian Andrews and Brona Furlong. Andrews ran 53.94 in Heat 1 to finish 3rd and qualify as a fastest loser while Furlong automatically qualified by finishing 2nd in Heat 4 in 53.84.
Medal hopes Derval O’ Rourke and David Gillick looked easy in winning their heats in the 60m hurdles and 400m and with the semi-finals this afternoon both will be looking to continue that confident form into this afternoon’s semi-finals.