Síofra Cléirigh Büttner books European Indoors spot

Several more Irish athletes have secured qualification for next month’s European Indoor Championships and none more rewardingly than Síofra Cléirigh Büttner, who is now the second fastest Irish woman indoors over 1,500 metres.

Competing at the World Indoor Tour meeting in Boston on Saturday, Büttner clocked 4:09.67 in third place, victory on the night going to the American Heather Maclean in 4:06.32. It improved by over two seconds her previous best, and Ciara Mageean is the only Irish woman to have run faster indoors over the distance, with her Irish record of 4:06.42 clocked in Boston last year.

The longer distance appears to suit Büttner, the 25 year-old from Dublin and Villanova graduate, who last month saw her Irish indoor 800m record being broken by Nadia Power.

Power was also in action over the weekend and continued her excellent running form by taking the win over the 800m at the IFAM meeting in Gent in Belgium in 2.02.83, the second fastest time of her career indoors.

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Just shy of her own Irish record of 2:02.44 set last month in Vienna, Power ran a perfectly executed race, the 23 year-old from Dublin winning by almost a second from Germany’s Tanja Spill, who ran 2:03.75, with Italy’s Elena Bello third in 2:03.91. Power also clocked 2:03.84 when finishing second to Poland’s Joanna Jozwik in 2:02.97 in Lievin last Tuesday.

Power will next race in the 800m at the World Indoor Tour in Torún, Poland on Wednesday, before focusing on the European Indoor Championships which take place in the same venue from March 5th-7th

Also in line for selection for Torún is Irish outdoor 800m champion Iseult O’Donnell, who took the win at the Val d’Oise meeting in France, running 2:03.27 which ranks her second among the Irish 800m athletes this season. Two further 800m times of note were recorded at the Bryggen Sports Invitational in Manchester, Louise Shanahan running 2:03.52 in second, with Katie Kirk third in 2:04.49.

A final chance for European Indoor qualification will come next weekend, Athletics Ireland confirming the Sport Ireland Expert Group have secured Government approval for an indoor micro-meeting to take place for invited high performance athletes in the Sport Ireland National Indoor Arena on Saturday and Sunday.

Entry is restricted to athletes tracking towards Olympic Games qualification and European Indoor Championships qualification, including senior relay panels. Mark English, who won European Indoor bronze over 800m two years ago in Glasgow, is among those set to race.

Also running a European Indoor standard over 1,500 was Dublin’s Brian Fay, who took the win at the Val de Reuil meeting in France in 3:41.64, while in the A race, Paul Robinson also ran a new lifetime best of 3:39.36 to finish sixth, with Andrew Coscoran 10th in 3:41.64. At the same meeting Michelle Finn, also running with the Dublin Track Club, ran a best of 4:15.23 to win the women’s 1,500.