Excellent First Day For Irish Athletes At The European Junior Athletics Championships

Sam Healy headlined an excellent first day for the Irish team at the 23rd European Junior Athletics Championships by qualifying fourth overall into tomorrow's long jump final with a best of 7.38m.

The young Leevale star was understandably delighted with his performance. "I'm absolutely delighted," said Healy who became the first man since Eoin Hannon to qualify for the European junior final in 2007. "I didn't expect it at all to be honest," continued the Cork man who has half an eye on Ciaran McDonagh's national junior record of 7.73m.

Andrew Coscoran (Star of the Sea) put in a gutsy performance to qualify as a fastest loser in the men's 1500m with an outdoor season's best of 3:47.81.

There were other good performances with 15-year-old Ciara Neville (Emerald) making the semi-finals of the 100m finishing fourth in her heat in 11.81. She finished 6th in her semi in 12.06. Gina Akpe-Moses (Blackrock, Louth) was knocked out in the heats with a time of 12.00.

Jenna Bromell (Emerald) just missed out in the 400m final finishing 10th overall with a personal best of 54.65. Bandon's Scott Gibson had an excellent run to finish third in 48.41 in the men's 400m and qualify for the semi-final.

There was no joy in the throws with John Kelly (Finn Valley) only managing 16.98m (22nd overall) while Fellan McGuigan (Finn Valley) got out to 66.67m in the hammer (15th overall).

Walsh Impresses in Colombia

Michaela Walsh (Swinford AC) impressed on the second day of competition at th IAAF World Youth Championships in Colombia. Walsh threw a new personal best of 16.63m in the shout putt in the first round to automatically qualify for the world youth final