News

Morning Session

Sarah Healy (UCD AC) and Andrew Coscoran (Star of the Sea AC) advanced to the final of the women’s and men’s 3,000m respectively this morning at the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands.

Healy raced in the first of the women’s heats and was comfortable throughout, cruising to victory in 8:55.35 to book her place in tomorrow’s final.

“I’m definitely relieved to qualify safely. I feel like that as far as heats go it wasn’t too messy or stressful. I’ve never done a 3,000m heat before but I think it’s a little bit less stressful than a 1500m heat, you have a bit more time to sort yourself out. It felt good,” she told Athletics Ireland.

Coscoran also got the job done in the men’s event, making smart tactical moves throughout, ensuring his progress to the final by finishing fifth in his heat in a time of 7:56.37.

Speaking afterwards the Balbriggan man said, “I’m really looking forward to the final tomorrow, I’m very confident coming into it.”

There was disappointment for Jodie McCann (Women’s 3000m) and James Gormley (Men’s 3000m) who both failed to advance to the finals. McCann finished tenth in her heat in 9:18.73, while Gormely was eighth in his heat running 7:53.27.

In the Men’s 60m Bori Akinola (UCD AC) made an impressive senior international individual debut clocking 6.66 seconds, finishing second in his heat, to qualify for this evening’s semi-final. The 23-year-old was pleased to advance, “I’m happy to come back with second there. I was confident coming in that I’d get through the heats, into the semi but the major work now is going to be in the semi to make the final. That’s where I need to step it up a little bit more.”

In the Women’s 60m Para Athletics race Orla Comerford (Raheny Shamrock AC) claimed victory in 7.63 seconds, a strong season opener. Comerford relished the opportunity to race on such a big stage, saying, “When the invite came in from European Athletics four weeks ago I was over the moon. To get a personal invite from them was huge and for them to be putting Para Athletics in this spotlight and giving us this opportunity is massive.”

This evening Bori Akinola returns for his 60m semi-final, while Cian McPhillips and Mark English race in the semi-finals of the Men’s 800m.

Evening Session

Mark English (Finn Valley AC) has sealed his place in tomorrow’s 800m final after an impressive semi-final run. English, who is a two-time medallist at these championships, showed all his experience to advance to the decider, clocking 1:45.89 to finish third in his semi-final race.

The 31-year-old qualified doctor positioned himself well throughout but with less than 100m to go found himself in fourth, outside the qualifying positions. He then demonstrated his considerable tactical nous, remained patient, found a gap and dug deep to finish in one of the all-important top three spots. Speaking afterwards English told Athletics Ireland, “Its job done. I’m just happy to make the final to be honest, that was the main aim. I got in the top three and I can’t wait for tomorrow. The race kind of worked out as I expected it to, there was one or two surprises. It was a real championship race, thankfully I have experience of plenty of them over the years and that stood to me.”

In the first semi-final Cian McPhillips (UCD AC) finished seventh in 1:47.40, which wasn’t enough to make the final. The young Longford athlete, competing at only his second ever major senior international, was in contention until the final lap when he unfortunately ran out of gas.

Earlier in the evening Bori Akinola (UCD AC) failed to advance to the final of the Men’s 60m. The 23-year-old clocked the second fastest time of his life, 6.63 seconds, to finish fourth in his semi-final. This placed Akinola 11th overall. Speaking afterwards Akinola was disappointed but was able to take some positives, “It’s disappointing. In context it is my second fastest time ever, but I was hoping to bring my best performance here, to PB, run 6.60 or under which is the B standard for World Indoors, but it wasn’t to be today.

“If you had told me last year that I’d be making the semi-finals I would’ve been over the moon…There’s going to be many more major championships [for me].”

Tomorrow is the final day of the championships at the Omnisport Arena and there will be plenty of Irish interest.

Kate O’Connor competes in the Pentathlon, Sarah Healy and Andrew Coscoran race in 3000m finals, Mark English goes in the men’s 800m final and then the women’s 4x400m relay team will bring the championships to a close.