by Jeremy Lyons Irish Women 3rd Best Nation The dust has settled on what was a magnificent performance by a young Irish team in the European Indoor Championships in Turin. With the spotlight justifiably focused on medal winners Mary Cullen and Derval O’Rourke, there were also some great performances further down the field which shows that real depth is now beginning to come into the sport in Ireland.
Roisin McGettigan showed she is a true competitor by firstly scraping into the final of the 1500m by 0.1 secs but then proved that the old adage of anything is possible in a final by coming within a whisker of a medal, finishing 4th, and only missing out by 0.16 secs.
Kelly Proper, quickly becoming the hottest property in Irish athletics, literally jumped out of her skin to make the final and while jumping a little below her best in the final still finished 7th.
The women’s 4 x 400 relay was sent as a development team with all six members of the squad making their debut at a senior major championship. But they belied their lack of experience by pushing the Belarusian quartet all the way to finish in 4th and just outside the medals. Marian Andrews, Brona Furlong, Gemma Hynes and bob-sledder Claire Bergin all ran relay personal bests to be only 2 secs outside the Irish record.
The result of all this means Ireland finished 9th out of 32 scoring nations in the Placing Table of the Championships but a more impressive statistic came to the fore from our women. On the Placing Table based on women’s results, Ireland finished a staggering 3rd with athletic super-powers Great Britain, Italy, Spain and France in their wake. A great achievement by the Irish team and the women in particular and a stepping stone for this very young team.
Overall Placing
1 RUS 213.5 pts
2 GER 94 pts
3 GBR 76 pts
3 FRA 76 pts
9 IRL 24 pts
Women’s Placing
1 RUS 152 pts
2 GER 51 pts
3 IRL 24 pts
4 GBR 23 pts
5 ITA 22 pts