Mills back on song following relay furore

Joanna Mills put the ongoing controversy over the make-up of the Irish Olympic women’s 4x400m relay squad behind her yesterday by returning to the track in impressive fashion.

Both she and Waterford hurdler Ben Kiely qualified for their respective semi-finals at the world junior championships in Barcelona, with Mills reaching tonight’s 400m semi-finals as a fastest loser.

Mills finished fourth in her first-round heat in a season’s best 54.17 seconds, but despite obvious joy at her best performance this year, the ongoing relay controversy still rankles.

The 19-year-old Ballymena & Antirm AC athlete was originally left out of the six picked for the relay, and after successfully appealing, a counter-appeal is under way from the dropped Caitriona Cuddihy.

“It’s been tough,” she said. “The week has been full of highs and lows. I’ve just had to try to keep focused, which is what I need to learn to do.

“It wasn’t ideal, but I’m going to have to deal with stuff like that so why not learn now? I’m trying not to think about that too much. I just want to wait and see how the results go.

“This [world juniors] has been the main aim all along since last season. I knew that the Olympics were there too.

“I didn’t expect it to be quite as messy as it was.”

European Youth Olympics gold medallist Kiely also squeezed through to the 400m hurdles semi-finals as a fastest loser. Ferrybank AC sprinter Kiely set a new personal best of 52.39 seconds in finishing fourth in his first-round heat.

Fellow double schools champion Siofra Cleirigh-Buttner of DSD bowed out in the semi-finals ofthe 800m, coming fifth in her race in a time of 2:06.70, whilein temperatures soaring to 35C, world youth champion Kate Veale came 18th and EmmaPrendiville finished down in 31stin the women’s 10,000m walk.