Ireland Place Seventh At The European Team Championships (1st League) In Tallinn, Estonia

Ireland have placed seventh of 12 teams at the European Team Championships (1st League) in Tallinn, Estonia today with 253.5 points matching their highest ever placing finishing achieved last year in Dublin. The competition was won by Belarus (302.5), Norway second (300) with Finland third (290.5,) all three earning a promotion to the next year's Super League.

Ireland Strongest Country on the Track
Ireland who fielded one of their strongest teams in recent years had several wins during the two-day competition and overall was the strongest of the 12 countries on the track. There was wins for Thomas Barr (Ferrybank AC) 400m Hurdles, Brian Gregan (Clonliffe Harriers AC) 400m, Mark English (UCD AC) 800m and Paul Robinson (St Coca's AC) 1500m.

Irish Record Holder Barr was pitted against home favourite Rasmus Magi of Estonia in the 400m hurdles. Barr was the stronger of the two in the home straight and stormed to victory in a time of 49.30 with Magi second in a time of 49.48. The time was his second fastest time ever for the distance, only his Irish record of 48.90 which he set in Geneva on Saturday, 14th of June is faster.

Gregan matched his team mate with victory in the 400m in a time of 46.54. Gregan had to battle all the way for the win as Julien Wartrin of Belgium finished second in a time of 46.57. English dominated the 800m running 1.47.63 with Tamas Kazi of Hungary almost a second behind with 1.48.42. Robinson was involved in a slow tactical 1,500m race produced a stunning burst of speed over the final 100m to win the race in a time of 3.51.05.

Top Three Performances
Fionnuala Britton (Kilcoole AC) finished second in the 5000m in 15.23.37 with Dulce Felix of Portugal winning in 15.21.32. Both pulled away from the pack early in the race with Felix injecting pace to pull away from Britton with two laps to go. Britton's time was well inside the needed qualification standard of 15.30 for the European Track and Field Championships in Zurich in August.

Laura Crowe battled well in a tactical 1500m to finish second in 4.13.84 holding off Liina Tšernov of Solvenia (4.14.20). The race was won by Ingvill Makestad Bovim of Norway in 4.11.07.

Kevin Batt was making his debut for Ireland placed third in the men's 5,000m event in a time of 14.17.35 to secure a crucial 10 points. Ben Reynolds also secured a third place in the 110m Hurdles in 13.82 into -.4 headwind, the race was won by Baji Balazs of Hungary in 13.51.

While the Men's 4x400m Team were the best of the Irish relays finishing second to a Belgium Team which included three Borlee brothers. Craig Lynch, Brian Murphy, Thomas Barr and Brian Gregan ran 3.05.40 to Belgium's 3.04,93. This time is the fastest time by an Irish team in six years and is the seventh fastest on the Irish All-Time list.

High Performance Manager

Kevin Ankrom, High performance manager said: "We came here targeting a top 5 position and while we fell a bit short of that position, I am very proud of the team. We finished the best team on the track overall and although there was a few field events which didn't deliver to expectation, there were solid performances from many of the field eventers. "