Ireland’s interest at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade has come to an end after Phil Healy and Ciara Neville bowed out of the 60m at the semi-final stage, writes Will Downing.
Healy was sixth in her semi-final, with Neville eighth.
Phil Healy post-race: "I'm not delighted with the time, but it was a busy championships with a lot of races. I have to be happy overall." pic.twitter.com/e0CcrD1Sar
— Athletics Ireland (@irishathletics) March 5, 2017
Both needed to be in either the top two, or be among the two fastest losers, to reach the decider – though even the current Irish record of 7.30 (jointly held by Neville) would not have been enough.
Emerald AC athlete Neville, Ireland’s youngest ever competitor at a European Indoors, was out first and clocked 7.49 seconds in taking eighth in her semi-final.
Sprint star Ciara Neville offers her thoughts after bowing out of the European Indoors with a 7.49-second run in the 60m semi-finals. pic.twitter.com/oyIwYychny
— Athletics Ireland (@irishathletics) March 5, 2017
Olesya Povh of Ukraine took the honours here in 7.16, ahead of French sprinter Floriane Gnafoua.
Healy fared better, but her 7.40 was only good enough for sixth place in the second semi-final, won by Britain’s Asha Philip, ahead of Germany’s Lisa Mayer and Poland’s junior world record holder Ewa Swoboda.
The Pole’s 7.26 sent her through to the final with the slowest time, which still eclipsed the Irish record.
Bandon AC athlete Healy said after her race: “The time I’m not overly thrilled with. I wish it was in the 7.3s, but times aren’t overly quick here today.
“It’s been a busy few days for me, and I can’t complain – I had the 400 heats, 60 heats and 60 semi-final.
“I’m going away as a European semi-finalist and I have to be happy with that.
“It’s something I can use for confidence taking it into the outdoor season.
“That national record I’ve got close to before and I was hoping to do the same today.
“I thought I went out better in the first run that was called back.
“I held in the blocks for the second time, but that’s an area to improve on.
“As we’ve seen her, the blocks have been somewhat dodgy, so I wasn’t going to risk getting a red card.”
Neville may not have been able to come near her Irish record-equalling display of 7.30 set in Athlone at the end of January, but competing at the large Kombank Arena in four of a crowd of up to eight-thousand will have given the 17-year-old a taste of the big time.
At 17 years 141 days, Neville becomes Ireland’s youngest ever competitor in the 47-year history of the European Indoors.
Michelle Walsh was 17 years 204 days old when competing in the 60m in Vienna in 1979.
The Limerick newcomer said: “It’s been a great experience. Getting into the semi-final was a great bonus for me so I can’t complain about the time, though I would have liked it to be faster.
“This is my third weekend in a row racing, so it’s all been quite tight.
“These Championships are very short. It could have gone either way – I felt great in the warm-up so I’ll have to keep working on that.
“It was actually great equalling the national record, but definitely in the coming years I want to run faster than that and see if I can improve on my PB.
“I had the national junior record (7.42) in my eye but I didn’t think I’d break it by that much so I’m delighted with how it went.”
Likewise, Healy’s 7.31 coming in the AIT Grand Prix Final surpassed her 7.34 PB set in the semi-final earlier that night, with 7.35 her previous lifetime best going into the February 15th televised showcase.
Healy was 14th overall and Neville 23rd.
Both for both, and for Ireland, it’s the end of the road in Belgrade.
For various reasons, a lot of Irish big names and recent indoor medallists were not in Belgrade, either through injury, unavailability, lack of form, skipping indoors entirely or retirement – names such as sole world indoors representative Rose-Anne Galligan; 2015 and 2013 European medallists Mark English, Fionnuala McCormack, Ciarán Ó Lionáird and Derval O’Rourke (now a TV commentator and author); plus 2014 world indoors semi-finalist David McCarthy.
It’s left Ireland with no top-eight finish for the first time at a European Indoors since 1996 in Stockholm, and it’s only the second Championships out of eight where Ireland have not won a medal.
Elsewhere, Laura Muir claimed her second gold medal in 24 hours, with another Championship record to boot, surging past Yasemine Can of Turkey to claim a thumping win in the women’s 3000 metres.
Her time of 8:35.67 smashed the 21-year-old record of Portugal’s Fernanda Ribeiro.
Yesterday, Muir grabbed glory in the 1500 metres final, featuring Ireland’s Ciara Mageean.
Spain enjoyed glory in the men’s equivalent via Adel Mechaal, who held off Norway’s former European outdoor champion Henrik Ingebrigtsen on the line.
Defending champion Selina Büchel retained her 800m crown by virtue of a photo finish and 0.01 of a second over Britain’s Shelayna Oskan-Clarke, as did Portugal’s Nelson Evora in the men’s triple jump.
