Good Performances from Irish Team on Day 1 of 21st European Junior Athletics Championships

In Tallinn, Estonia today, temperatures may have climbed above 30°C and 80% humidity, but the first young Irish athletes in action at the 21st European Juniors have enjoyed a relatively healthy start.

First in action this morning in the women's 10,000m Walk final, were Maeve Curley (Craughwell AC) and Emma Prendiville (Farranfore Maine Valley AC).

Both athletes gave good accounts of themselves in the challenging conditions. Curley finished an excellent 10th place in 51:22.84 seconds from a field of 24 athletes, with Prendiville only five places back in 15th with 53:05.73. Both will have grounds to be pleased with their performances as the pace was red hot up front, with the three Russian athletes taking all three medals, the winner Elena Lashmanova in a remarkable new world junior record of 42:59.48. The first 8 walkers home all broke 50 minutes for the distance.

Ireland had three qualifiers in the men's Hammer event this morning, and all three from the two qualifying groups three over the respectable distance of 60 meters. Killian Barry (Crusaders AC) managed 64.88m, Dempsey McGuigan (Finn Valley AC) 62.68m and Andrew Doyle (Mid Ulster AC) 61.50m. Unfortunately none were good enough to progress to the final on this occasion but no doubt have learnt much from the invaluable international experience at this level.

Bandon AC's Joan Healy was our representative in the women's 100m heats earlier today, and Healy ran well to progress to the semi-finals. Running in the 2nd heat, Curley placed 4th in 12.02 to take one of the fastest loser spots to progress. Later in the 2nd semi-final, Curley gave it 100% to finish 6th in 11.99, not far off her best of 11.86, and missed making the final only by three places. Healy will be disappointed not to have made tomorrow's final but will eager to improve her PB later this season.

Joanna Mills (Ballymena & Antrim AC) was drawn in the 3rd semi of the women's 400m this morning, and went in with a best time of 54.20 for the one lap event. With only the 1st two guaranteed to make the coveted final, the young Mills knew she would have to give it the proverbial socks.

And that she did. Crossing the line in 3rd place in a time of 53.89 seconds, a new personal best by some margin, Mills took one of the two fastest loser places up for grabs with ease. Mills now races for a place on the podium from the challenging lane 2 in tomorrow's Friday's final at 4:45pm Irish time, where she knows she will have to probably run even faster to give herself a realistic chance. Of that, Mills is more than capable.

The final Irish athlete in action today was Tullamore Harriers' Liam Brady in the final of the men's 10,000m final. Brady, running in challenging climatic conditions, ran a very solid race to finish an excellent 7th place in 32:37.27. Brady was in excellent form over the country last winter and that foundation served him in good stead this evening. Only the winner Gabriel Navarro (Spain) broke thirty-one minutes, but he did so comfortably with 30.02.18, a season's best for the Spaniard, whose countrymen have had a illustrious history over this most challenging of track distances.

Tomorrow, Irish athletes Ciara Mageean (City of Lisburn AC) , the World Junior silver medallist over 1500m last season, and Mark English (Letterkenny AC), the Irish Senior Indoor Champion over 800m this year, will both be planning to make it through to the their respective next rounds on Sunday and Saturday respectively.