Ireland's Brian Gregan & Rose-Anne Galligan Set New Best Times in Spain

Three of Ireland's international athletes were in action tonight at the European Meeting in Huelva, Spain, and equipped themselves very well.

Hot on the heels of his 200 PB (personal best) of 21.05 on Sunday last in Dublin, Ireland's Brian Gregan (Clonliffe Harriers AC) set a sparkling new PB of 45.53 over his specialist distance of 400m, winning the race from a very strong field which included the Spanish and Portuguese number ones, and the British number two, for the event. The Tallaght man's winning time was nearly a tenth faster than his previous best time of 45.61

Gregan took the race by nearly half a second from Britain's Luke Lennon Ford, who was timed at 46.04 in second.

This was only Gregan's third outing of the season so far, and he has already shown real speed and strength over the 200m and 400m events.

Gregan's time of 45.53 was also inside the B standard qualifying time for the Moscow World Chapionships in August, and is closer to the A standard of 45.28.

Gregan's long time coach John Shields has said:

"I'm delighted for Brian. He had a great winter's training and he will only go faster as the rest of the season unfolds."

Brian Gregan next competes in Gothenberg, Sweden on Saturday night next, again over 400m, before focusing on competing for Ireland at the distance at the European Athletics Team Championships in Santry on June 22nd/ 23rd.

Ireland had another winner tonight on the track in Huelva, in the shape of the ever improving Rose-Anne Galligan (Newbridge AC) who, like her compatriot Gregan, not only won her 800m event but did so in a new PB time of 2;01.07.

This was a fantastic result for Galligan, whose winning time was nearly a second better than her previous best of 2.01.83, only set last week in Italy. That time was inside the B standard for 800m for the World Championships, and Galligan's time tonight edges her ever closer to the A standard time of 2.00.00.

Ireland's 2012 European Cross Country Champion, Fionnuala Britton (Kilcoole AC), was the final Irish athlete in action tonight in Huelva, Spain.

The determined and talented Wicklow athlete took on the early pace on and was in 1st place at 1000m, reached in 3.03, but later in the tactical race found the break made by Fuentes of Spain and Gebre of Ethiopia difficult to cover. Britton eventually finished in 4th place in 15.45.20, behind the winner Fuentes Pila Ortiz of Spain, who clocked 15.34.84, with the 2nd and 3rd place finishers just a second off that.

Britton will nonetheless be encouraged by the performance in what was a large field, knowing that is it still relatively early season and with lots of sharpening still to be undertaken later in the summer.

These performances by Irish Athletes tonight will help build the already growing momentum for a strong Irish performance at the upcoming European Athletics Team Championships in Santry, June 22/23rd.