Rising star Lavin shows steel with powerful Sheffield run

Sarah Lavin’s stock continued to rise yesterday at the British Athletics Indoor championships in Sheffield with a bronze medal over the 60m hurdles in 8.25 moving her to second on the Irish all-time record list.

The Emerald AC athlete completed a busy few days, having won over the sprint hurdles at the Irish Universities on Friday in 8.36.

Lavin improved further in Sheffield to a new personal best of 8.25 and usurping 1996 Olympian Susan Smith (8.30) on the Irish senior rankings to lie behind Derval O’Rourke’s world-class 7.84 which the Cork woman set when winning the world indoor title in Moscow in 2006. UCD student Lavin will now attempt the world indoor standard (8.16) at the national championships next weekend.

Amy Foster (City of Lisburn) equalled her personal best when finishing fourth in the 60m in 7.33 seconds — an agonising 100th of a second outside the standard for the World Indoors in Sopot, Poland on March 7-9.

There were a number of other Irish performers competing on the boards in Sheffield and Caoimhe King (Aughagower AC) hopped, skipped and jumped to a new Irish U23 record of 12.96m.

Ferrybank’s Kelly Proper improved her season’s best to finish third in the long jump in 6.38m behind Britain’s new multi-event sensation Katrina Johnson-Thompson, who won in 6.75m.

The 21-year-old set a new British high jump record of 1.96m at the championships on Saturday. Zoe Brown (Raheny Shamrock) finished third in the pole vault in 4.16m and Rose-Anne Galligan (Newbridge) was fourth in the women’s 1500m in 4:21.80. “It confirms I’m an 800m runner,” said Galligan wryly having led much of the race.