A number of Irish athletes fresh from competing at last weekend’s Irish Life Health National Senior Track and Field Championships will be in action in Stockholm, Sweden tonight competing in the pre-programme races of the Diamond League meet.
There was disappointment for John Fitzsimmons (Kildare AC) when he finished second behind Mark English at the weekend. Fitzsimmons however has the fastest time over 800m by an Irish man this season and will be looking to produce a strong performance this evening. Fitzsimmons will face stiff competition from Australian athletes James Preston and Jye Perrott as well as British athlete Ben Pattison, who all have faster Seasons Best’s. The race is scheduled to get underway at 5.15pm Irish Time.
Sarah Lavin (Emerald AC) goes in a strong Women’s 100m Hurdles race. The Limerick woman was a comfortable winner of the 100m Hurdles national title on Saturday into an extraordinarily strong headwind and came fourth in the 100m on Sunday. Lavin will be looking to get close or go under her current PB of 12.93s set in Madrid less than two weeks ago. She faces off against the likes of Zoe Sedney of the Netherlands, Liz Clay of Australia and Denmark’s Mette Graversgaard who all have faster Seasons Best’s than Lavin. Lavin will be entering the blocks at 5.34pm Irish Time.
Sarah Healy (UCD AC) would’ve been extremely disappointed with her fourth-place finish over 800m last weekend. Healy is stepping back up a distance tonight to race over 1500m, a distance in which she set a new Irish U23 record of 4.02.86 in recently to move to third on the Irish All-Time list. The field consists of names such as Winnie Nanyondo of Uganda and Australians Linden Hall and Georgia Griffith. Ellie Baker of Great Britain who finished second over 800m at the National Championships in Manchester last weekend also races. Healy takes to the track at 6.03pm.
Having missed the National Championships last weekend Andrew Coscoran (Star of the Sea AC) is expected to be back in action this evening. Coscoran who made the Olympic Semi-Final last year will race again over 1500m. The pace is expected to be sub-3.35, with British athlete Matthew Stonier and Czech Filip Sasinek both having faster Season’s Bests than Coscoran. The Louth man takes to the track at 6.31pm.
Two Irish relay teams will also be in action tonight with the Men’s and Women’s 4x100m teams competing. The Women have qualified for the World Championships and are also within the top 16 places that secures qualification for the European Championships, while the Men will be looking to push their way inside that top 16. The Men’s team’s race is at 5.47pm with the Women following at 6.16pm. At the time of writing confirmed teams have not been named.
The races fall outside the TV coverage window which runs from 7pm to 9pm on BBC Three and YouTube, however Irish fans can tune into Seamus Carey’s Facebook page for a livestream of the races involving Irish athletes from the Stockholm Olympic Stadium starting at 5.15pm.
