Ryan and Sheehy keep flag flying in Munich

ON a day when controversy threatened to take over, there was double joy for Irish sprinters at the European championships in Munich last night.

Gary Ryan bounced back from adversity to claim his place in the semi-final of the men’s 200m and Ciara Sheehy, bronze medallist at under-23 level last year, took her career to a new level by advancing to the semi-finals of the women’s 200m.

It took a courageous performance from the Nenagh Olympic man, after three frustrating years fraught with injury, to get through on a tough day at the office. In the morning he had to dig deep to get into the second round as the second fastest of the fastest losers.

That was after he finished sixth in 20.93 secs in a heat won by Francis Obikwelu of Portugal, 20.55 secs with Marcin Jedrusinski of Poland second in 20.57 secs, Geir Moen (Norway) third in 20.87 and Tommi Hartonen of Finland getting the fourth automatic place in a new personal best time of 20.88 secs.

And after spending much of the afternoon with Niamh Kissane, physiotherapist to the Irish team, he went back to the well last evening to claim his semi-final place.

Again his time - 20.98 - took him through amongst the fastest losers after he had finished fifth behind Jedrusinski who ran a new career best time at 20.37 to reverse the placings with Obikwelu with Christian Malcom of Great Britain third and Martin Brinarsky of the Slovak Republic, who overtook Ryan off the bend, fourth.

“I must admit it was not easy but I cannot say how delighted I am to be through,” Gary Ryan said.

“This morning in my heat I got cramps in my calves and then in the afternoon when I went back to the athletes’ village they got even worse. I got cramps in my hamstrings.

“Coming here I thought if I can get back to where I was in Budapest then I will be on the right lines.

“ It is going to be way more difficult to get in the final here I mean you are talking about two Olympic medallists and a world championship’s medallist but I am going to have a right go at it,” he said.

A former national record holder at both 100m and 200m, he was a shock winner of the 100m title at last month’s national championships after finishing behind the current record holder, Paul Brizzel in the final of the 200m.

That was his third title at 100m and he has also won four at 200m. He competed at both the Atlanta and Sydney Olympics.

With the first round heats cancelled, Ciara Sheehy went into last evening’s second round without the benefit of an earlier race but she did what she had to with confidence and poise.

She ran an excellent bend to enter the straight in third position and hung on to finish in 23.25 secs. Muriel Hurtis (France) went clear to win in 22.86, clear of Gabi Rockmeier (Germany) 23.24.

“I was quite positive and I was very hungry to get to the semi-final,” she said.

“I wanted to be in the top three. I didn’t want to be a fastest qualifier or anything like that. I wanted the top three spot, I got it and I am very happy right now.

“I was quite confident coming here that I would get through to a semi-final. Right now I am in very good form, I am in good shape and I am thinking a lot more positively so everything is going well.”

“Now I am just looking forward to the semi-final and getting into that final.”

She said she felt that what has gone before helped her enormously. The bronze medals she won in the European junior championships in 1999 and the European under-23 championships, the European indoors twice, the world championships and the Olympics had all given her the experience and the confidence to be competitive here.

Derval O’Rourke failed by one place to get through to the semi-finals of the women’s 100m hurdles after she finished fifth in her head in 13.41 - her fourth fastest time of the season.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Edwards saw his reign as European champion brought to an end as the triple jump great was toppled by Sweden’s Christian Olsson.

Edwards was beaten into third place just 11 days after he became only the fourth Brit to complete the grand slam of major titles when he took Commonwealth Games gold in Manchester.

The 36-year-old world record-holder, who had complained of a heel-cum-shin injury after qualifying two days ago, was well below his usual standard with a best jump of 17.32m.

Olsson, who won silver behind Edwards at last year’s worlds, won with a leap of 17.53m with Germany’s Charles Friedek snatching silver by just one centimetre.