Joy, drama and heartbreak for Irish athletes

There was a mix of joy, drama and heartbreak for the Irish athletes in action on the opening day of the European track and field championships in Helsinki yesterday.

Brian Gregan (Clonliffe Harriers) was the star of the show as he returned a career best time of 45.63 secs to win his first round head of the men’s 400m – in fact his was the fastest time of the day.

Earlier Tom and Jessie Barr from the Ferrybank club finished second and third, respectively, in their first round heats of the 400m hurdles to gain automatic selection to for today’s semi-finals and Jason Smyth (City of Derry) fought back from a slow start to qualify for the semi-finals of the men’s 100m.