No luck for the Irish so far at European Athletics

Mark English put to bed a glum night for Ireland at the European Athletics Championships in Zurich, by qualifying for Friday ngiht’s final of the men’s 800 metres – but it was a close-run thing.

English needed to hang on as a fastest loser after being outkicked in the closing straight, knocked down into fourth place by Poland’s Artur Kucizpski and Andreas Bube of Denmark.

The fastest man in Europe this year, Pierre-Ambrose Bosse was in control from before the bell.

The Letterkenny and UCD AC athlete still clocked a fast 1 minute, 46.23 seconds – which proved to be faster than the second semi-final’s winning time of 1:47.12 from Pole Adam Kszczot.

English admitted his relief after the race: “I was sitting tight there. I got my bit of luck today and I’m through to the final.

“I can’t wait to give those boys a good bashing on Friday. The Poles looked good but the guys in my race were probably the strongest I feel.

“I’m looking forward to having a good run after a day’s recovery. I don’t think it’s a true reflection of my speed.

“I’ll get back and recover Friday. I should be okay.”

The four previous athletes on track had been knocked out in semi-final action.

Thomas Barr needed his trademark strong kick when finding himself in fifth place at the final bend in his 400m hurdles semi-final, but could only rally to third, meaning having to wait as a fastest loser.

His time of 49.30 seconds was surpassed by the first four in the last semi, meaning the Waterford athlete departing at the penultimate stage.

Kariem Hussein of Switzerland won Barr’s semi in 49.16 seconds, with Serbian Emir Bekric second in 49.21 and Barr third in 49.30.

The Ferrybank AC hurdler had to watch as Rasmus Mägi led home a swift closing race by winning in 48.54 with Felix Fritz’s third-place run of 48.96 knocking Barr out of the reckoning.

The Waterfordian said: “I had a great race yesterday, I was comfortable and relaxed.

“I felt fresh today coming into the race and just didn’t have it in me on the day.

“That’s the way running goes, you have good days and bad days. Unfortunately, today was a terrible day to have a bad day.”

The action had been delayed by almost an hour due to category 2 gusts that interrupted the decathlon pole vault, and which were considered too hazardous to allow competition in the evening session begin on time.

Brian Gregan ran a season’s best of 45.81 in coming sixth in his 400m semi-final – ironically faster than the winning time of the opening semi-final claimed by Conrad Williams.

Richard Morrissey’s mark of 46.64 saw him finish eighth in his 400m semi, with Amy Foster taking a similar position in her semi-final of the women’s 100m, in a race won by Myriam Soumaré of France.

Earlier this morning, Christine McMahon qualified for tomorrow’s semi-finals of the women’s 400m hurdles after coming third in her first-round heat in a race of carnage where neither athlete on either side of her finished the race in wet conditions.

Dane Sara Petersen was disqualified for a false star, while Ukrainian Hanna Ryzhykova fell just before the final hurdle and into the Irish athlete’s lane, allowing McMahon to qualify in third.

McMahon said: “Well, we had a false start and a girl falling over a hurdle into my lane. One of them you might expect but not so many in one race!

“With hurdles you’re trained to expect things to go wrong. I saw her stutter but people normally do at that stage of the race and normally keep it together, but unfortunately she didn’t today.”

Mo Farah and Andy Vernon enjoyed a British 1-2 in the men's 10000m, Dafne Schippers capped a spectacular season for the Dutchwoman by winning the women's 100m, and Tiffany Porter claimed the women's 100m hurdles for Britain.

Andrei Krauchanka of Belarus won the men’s decathlon and Miguel Angel Lopez claimed the men’s 20k walk in an incredibly tight finish for Spain