Irish Hurdlers Impress on Day 2 of the European Junior Track and Field Championships

Sarah Lavin (Emerald AC) made a positive start in her quest for a medal on day two of the European Junior Track and Field Championships in Rieti, Italy. Lavin comes into these championships ranked as the second fastest junior in Europe in the 100m hurdles event. She will be quietly confident of her chances here after a dominant display in this morning's heats.

Lavin ran aggressively out of the blocks and cleared the first hurdle first. She was never headed as she flowed fluently over the barriers. Lavin won her heat in an impressive time of 13.38. The time is only .02 outside her national junior record, signifying that there are faster times to come. Lavin will go in the semi-finals later this afternoon at 15.25pm.

It was a nail-biting wait for Nessa Millet (St. Abbans AC) to see if she would advance in the 400m Hurdles this morning, when she finished 5th in her heat in new PB of 59.69 seconds. With three heats to follow hers, she lay in the 2nd fastest loser spot out of the 4 available. It came down to the last heat, with Millet then in the 3rd fastest loser spot and, thankfully, it was joy for the Abbans girl when heat 4 concluded, with Millet remaining in the third spot. Millet goes in semi-final two tomorrow at 14:10pm.

It was more success for the Irish hurdlers when Ben Kiely (Ferrybank AC) produced all you can ask of an athlete at a championship, finishing second in his heat in a new personal best time of 52.10 seconds. Kiely qualifies automatically for the semi-finals tomorrow at 14:20pm Irish time and goes into the race as the fifth fastest qualifier.

There was no luck for Karl Griffin (Tir Chonaill AC) in the heats of the men's 800m. Griffin was drawn in the second heat with the top three assured of qualification for the semi-final. There was a lot of bumping and barging on the second lap with Griffin loosing position going down the back straight. Griffin finished in fifth place a time of 1:52.94 which was unfortunately outside the times needed for qualification.