Irish Athlete Laura Crowe Sets New 800m Personal Best Tonight at Bislett Games, Oslo, Norway

Irish international athlete Laura Crowe (An Riocht AC), competing over 800m at the famous Bislett Games in Oslo, Norway tonight, ran an excellent new PB (personal best) when finishing in 7th place in a time of 2.02.69.

The Kerry athlete, whose previous best time of 2.04.30 was only set last month in Letterkenny, will be pleased with her performance and will know that bettering the World Athletics Championship qualifying B standard time of 2.01.50 for the competitive two-lap event will not be beyond her reach as the season really kicks into life in next month.

The class international field hit 400m in a very fast 56.19, with Crowe going through sensibly in around 60 seconds. On the second lap Crowe held her nerve and worked really hard to stay with the rest of the stretched out field to finish well and pass two athletes in the home straight.

The winner was Russia's Yekatarina Poistagova in a season's best of 1.59.39, who just edged out the Ukranian Lupu who also dipped under the international elite two-minute benchmark time.

Crowe, 25, has been in good form all year, and was a runaway winner of the 1,500m at the British Milers Club meeting in Manchester last month. Her winning time of 4:12.25 was the fastest by an Irish woman so far this season and improved on her 4:16.48 PB she set in Athlone in February 2013.

Crowe's time of 2.02.69 tonight will also stand to the ambitious athlete from Kerry over the 1500m distance and improve her chances of getting closer to the World Championship's B standard time of 4.09.0, which is only just over three seconds away from her current PB.