James Nolan's rating among the emerging 800 metres runners in Europe was confirmed in another impressive performance in the European Under-23 championships at Gothenburg yesterday.
Just a week after pulling out of the national championship final with a muscle injury, the UCD athlete emphasised his resilience by finishing second to the accomplished German, Nils Schumann, in one minute 46.94 seconds.
This was 1.7 seconds slower than Schumann, one of the strongest favourites for a title in Sweden after winning the European senior title at the distance at Budapest last season. But in the end the margin was unflattering to the Irishman.
Nolan's brave effort contrasted with a sub-standard run by Gareth Turnbull in Saturday's 1,500 metres final. For once, Turnbull was way off the pace in finishing seventh in 3:46.79 in a race won with some authority by the Portuguese athlete, Carlos de Silva in 3:44.29.
There was no luck either for the Irish 4x400 metres relay squad of Paul Oppermann, Paul McKee, Darren Hough and Brian Liddy, who were marginally slower than in the semi-final when finishing seventh in the final in 3:07.26.
Elsewhere, Ciaran McDonagh almost certainly booked his place in Ireland's team for the world championships at Seville later in the month when winning the long jump event at an international meeting at Talinn.
Although someway short of his superb form in the national championships, McDonagh got in a jump of 7.95 metres, which gives him a "B" qualifying standard for Seville.
Peter Coghlan, already assured of a place in the squad for the championships, confirmed his impressive form of late by winning the 110 metres hurdles event in 13.38 seconds, the second fastest of his career.
Paul Brizzell bounced back from the disappointment of defeat by Gary Ryan at Santry, to finish second in the 200 metres in 21.01 seconds, and a career best of 52.15 seconds earned James Matthews second place in the 400 metres hurdles event. Antoine Burke and John Dermody finished third in the high jump and shot respectively.
