Five Irish athletes had good results last night on the circuit in Europe as a few days of Track and Field action at home and abroad got underway.
Sarah Lavin (Emerald AC) and Kate Doherty (Dundrum South Dublin AC) travelled to Germany for the International Anhalt Meeting near Leipzig. Lavin entered the heats with the fastest PB in the field, her 12.95s clocking in Madrid last summer is the second fastest by Irish athlete in the 100m Hurdles event in history. Doherty meanwhile had ran a PB of 13.45s last weekend at the National League in Belfast putting her fourth on the all-time list.
Lavin comfortably won the first heat, easing through to the final in 13.19s. Doherty finished fourth in Heat 2 running 13.59s, which unfortunately was not enough to advance.
The final was equally as comfortable for Lavin, who obliterated the field to clock a time of 13.00s (-0.2 m/s) to claim victory, some 0.25s ahead of the field. This was a fantastic performance from the Limerick athlete, her second fastest time ever recorded and will give her great confidence as she continues her season. Raising her arms aloft in celebration as she crossed the line, it was evident she was delighted.
Elsewhere, Andrew Coscoran (Star of the Sea AC) and Georgie Hartigan (Dundrum South Dublin AC) travelled to Spain for the Meeting Iberoamericano in Huelva, near Seville. Both athletes raced over 1500m.
Coscoran ran a Season’s Best time of 3.36.84 to move top of the Irish rankings this season. He finished third in a competitive race won by Norwegian athlete Narve Gilje Nordås in 3.36.23. Coscoran’s time is not far off his PB of 3.35.66 set last summer in Finland.
Hartigan also produced a solid performance in her race. In what was a poorly paced race she did well to run 4.11.77, outside her Season’s Best to finish seventh.
Paul Robinson (St. Coca’s AC) was also in action last night. Robinson produced his best performance over 800m since 2014 running 1.48.71 to finish fifth at the Motonet Grand Prix event in Lahti, Finland. It has been a good start to the season for Robinson who recently ran under four minutes for the Mile again, clocking 3.57.88 in Highgate, London.
Tonight John Fitzsimmons (Kildare AC) is in action tonight at the Meeting International Satuc in Toulouse, France. Fitzsimmons goes in the Men’s 800m race at 6.15pm Irish time. He has had a wonderful start to his season running a PB of 1.46.41 to win at the Irish Milers Club Meet in Belfast a couple of weeks ago and will be hoping for a similar outcome tonight.
