Anger over lane change decision as disappointed Sheehy is edged out

CIARA SHEEHY was bitterly disappointed that she had been switched from lane eight to lane one without her knowledge before the start of last night’s semi-finals of the Women’s 200 metres.

She finished fifth in 23.47secs with the first four to go through. But she would surely have done better were it not for the fact that the lane draw had been changed.

On Tuesday night, the draw had her in lane eight, and all day yesterday she worked out tactics with her coach, Jim Kilty, based on this draw.

When she found herself back in lane one 20 minutes before the race all her plans went out the window.

She said: “I was geared up to run in lane eight and being told 20 minutes beforehand that it had been changed does not help your concentration, your confidence or your focus.”

Gary Ryan equalled his second-round time when he finished sixth in his semi-final of the Men’s 200 metres in 20.98 seconds, but despite failing to get through to the final, he was happy that he had made it this far after years of injury and frustration.

He said: “Of course I am disappointed, I knew there were six people going through to the final but I felt that the other two places were up for grabs and thought if I ran 20.6 or 20.7 I could have got through. I obviously gave it everything I had.”

“Getting this far has probably turned my career around. I was on the brink of extinction, now I know I am on the way back. I have a future, and I can think about things like the World Championships and the Olympics once again.”

Geraldine Hendricken and Peter Coghlan made disappointing exits from the championships yesterday morning.

Hendricken, this year’s sensation of Irish middle distance running, could only manage eighth place in her 1500m heat While later in the day Coghlan ran one of the slowest races of his career at 13.96 seconds to finish fifth in his first round heat of the 110m hurdles.

While Coghlan could trace his poor form back to a succession of injuries in the lead up to the championships, Hendricken could only scratch her head in wonder.

She sprinted the opening 200 metres in under 23 seconds alongside runaway winner Sarreyya Ayhan of Turkey, but quickly lost touch.

“I could not go with her but I should have been able to handle the pace,” she said.

“I have no answers, I am so disappointed but I was just in oxygen debt at the end of a 62 second lap.

“I felt great yesterday out there on the training track but today I was just dreadful. I went through 800 metres in 2.11 and would normally be able to handle that pace.”

Ayhan ran 4.04.42 for victory on her seasonal debut while Tatyana Tomashora of Russia beat the World champion Gabriella Szabo winning her heat in 4.05.04 to set up an interesting three way contest in tomorrow’s final.

Maria Lynch finished eighth in this heat in 4.14. 41.

Peter Coghlan’s performance could be put down to injuries.

After running 13.52 at the European clubs championships in Lisbon he injured a tendon two days later and when he went to the Europa Cup it flared up during his warm up.

It cleared up in a couple of weeks but then he had a hip injury which spread to his troublesome groin which required surgery a couple of years ago.

“I could make excuses but really I ran a bad race today. Good start, then I hit the second hurdle and I had technical problems from halfway,” he said.