Phil Healy leads Irish into athletic action in Belgrade

Bandon’s Phil Healy gets Irish interest underway at the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade today and she, like the rest of the Irish team, will need to be at her best to advance past the first round.

Healy has been drawn in heat 1 with a favourable lane 5 but has to contend with a formidable opponent in Zuzana Hejnova of the Czech Republic. Hejonova is the double, and reigning, 400m hurdles champion. She will be inside Healy in lane 2 and the Bandon athlete will have to pace her race to perfection.

Healy’s flat speed isn’t in doubt having run 7.31 seconds for the 60m this season — one-hundredth of a second outside the national record. It will be more a case of controlled speed for the Bandon athlete so she can last the gruelling 400m race — two laps indoors.

“Coming from a speed base it’s a challenge to get the pace right because you’re so comfortable going through 200m,” said Healy who is still fully transitioning to the event — in her formative years she was a 100m/200m sprinter having finished fourth in the European Junior 100m final in 2013.

The 400m schedule for the European Indoors is testing to put it mildly.

Healy and Sinead Denny (DSD), in lane 6 of heat 6 of the women’s 400m, will have to be in the first two or two of the next fastest on times to advance to the semi-finals in the afternoon.

Brian Gregan’s (Clonliffe Harriers) speed endurance could be equally tested in the men’s 400m should he advance from lane three in heat two.

Lane order is particularly important with the high bends and tighter 200m circuit.

Another man who could have a potentially busy day one is Ben Reynolds (North Down) in the 60m hurdles. Heats, semi-finals and final are all on the first day. Great Britain’s Andrew Pozzi is the favourite.

Ireland’s main medal hope Ciara Mageean (UCD) gets her 1500m campaign underway at 4.15pm with the first two in each heat and the next three fastest advancing to tomorrow’s final.

Claudia Bobocea (Romania) beat Mageean in the Athlone Grand Prix last month and is in her heat alongside Sweden’s Meraf Bahta.

The Portaferry athlete was struggling with a head cold at the time but looks like she’s rounding into shape at just the right time.