PB earns Lieghio final place

ATHLETICS:ANTHONY LIEGHIO was among the standout Irish performers on the opening day of the European Under-23 Championships in Ostrava yesterday, running a personal time best of 1:48.06 to qualify for the final of the 800 metres.

Lieghio ran a tactically astute race in the Czech Republic to finish third behind Spain’s Kevin Lopez, who ran 1:47.43.

But while the Tallaght AC athlete will be back in action in this afternoon’s final, there was disappointment for team-mate Darren McBrearty, who missed out on a place in the final. A member of the Irish team at the European Indoors earlier this year, McBrearty had high hopes coming to Ostrava. But after setting the pace in a slow, tactical race, he was run out of the qualifying places and finished fifth in 1:49.34.

Victory in that heat went to Britain’s Mukhtar Mohammed in 1:48.20.

McBrearty will look for some consolation when he doubles in the 1,500m tomorrow.

Jessie Barr from Ferrybank AC underlined her real potential when she qualified for the final of the 400m hurdles. Barr finished second in her heat in 58.01, but has been drawn in lane eight for tomorrow’s final, with two of the Ukrainian finalists running inside 57 seconds this season.

Dooneen AC’s Timmy Crowe ran an excellent race to make the semi-finals of the 400m hurdles, also posting a personal best of 51.24 in finishing second in his heat.

The relatively inexperienced Paul Byrne from St Abban’s AC also advanced to the semi-final after clocking 51.90, equalling his best.

Last into the action yesterday was Clonliffe’s Brian Gregan in the heats of the 400m, and the big man from Tallaght didn’t disappoint as he took second in his heat in a season’s best time of 46.32 to qualify automatically for tomorrow’s final with obvious ambitions of making it into the medals.

Former European Junior 100m finalist Niamh Whelan was unlucky to be eliminated in her heat by finishing sixth in 11.89.

Adam McMullen also failed to progress in the long jump. McMullen recorded 7.27m to place eighth in his qualification group.

Among those in action today are Steven Colvert and Chris Russell in the 200m heats, Whelan in the women’s 200m heats, Kourosh Foroughi in the men’s high jump qualification and Claire Wilkinson in the pole vault qualification.