Athletics: Hession and O'Keeffe win at the European Cup

Paul Hession and Eileen O'Keeffe win at European Cup in Finland

Sun 24th June 2007

Paul Brizzel’s Irish 200m record survived yet another onslaught from Paul Hession on Day 2 of the European Cup in Vaasa Finland. Paul, who can do no wrong these days, was on fire again today after his Irish 100m record exploits of yesterday, and was one of two Irish winners, with Eileen O’Keeffe (pictured above) on fire to win the hammer.

Paul lowered his 200m best time to 20.61, getting closer to the 20.54 record on the books since 2000, and his performances this weekend is another massive to Irish sprinting.

Eileen O’Keeffe not only won the hammer, but her winning throw of 69.44m broke her own Irish record of 69.36m.

Derval O’Rourke is fast returning to the form she showed last year when winning the World indoor 60 hurdles and winning silver at the European championships over 100m hurdles. Today she was a gallant second to arch rival Susanna Kallur from Sweden, and and she will be happy with her time of 13.00 seconds.

Roisin McGettigan, a late addition to the team, ran an excellent race for second in the 3,000m steeplechase in 9:54.44.

Those were the only top three placings by the Irish team today, with the women finishing sixth, and the men seventh overall.

WOMEN
Great Britain & NI 131
Sweden 110
Czech Republic 102
Finland 98
Netherlands 78
Ireland 76
Norway 73
Slovak Republic 50

MEN
Spain 111
Sweden 107
Netherlands 101,5
Czech Republic 93,5
Finland 88,5
Switzerland 81
Ireland 76
Slovak Republic 59,5

200m: 1. Paul Hession 20,61 -1.0

800m: 6. David McCarthy 1.50,74

3,000m 4. James Nolan 8.10,17

3,000m Steeplechase: 7. Mark Kirwan 9.23,27

110m Hurdles 8. Ian McDonald 14,88 +0.2

Pole Vault: 7. Anthony McCreery 4.60

Triple Jump: 7. Jonathan Ritchie 14,70 +0,3

Discus: 6. Eoin Leen 51,42

Javelin: 8. Aaron Crawford 53,45

4×400m: 4. Ireland 3.08,22
Gordon Kennedy
Jonathon Miller
David McCarthy
Brian Murphy

200m: 6. Ciara Sheehy 23,95 -1.6

1,500m: 7. Kelly Reid 4.28,79

5,000m: 4. Fionnuala Britton 16.16,26

3,000m Steeplechase: 2. Roisin McGettigan 9.54,44

100m Hurdles: 2. Derval O’Rourke 13,00 +0.0

High Jump: 5. Deirdre Ryan 1.80

Long Jump: 7. Leona Byrne 5,69 -0,9

Shot: 7. Laura Cogan 12,90

Hammer: 1. Eileen O’Keeffe 69,44

4×400m: 5. Ireland 3.38,39
Joanne Cuddihy
Michelle Carey
Rose-Anne Galligan
Sarah Quinn