Irish impress at Team event

Athletics: Ireland finished a solid seventh out of 12 teams at the European Team Championships 1st League in Tallinn, Estonia yesterday with some notable victories on the track.

Thomas Barr (Ferrybank) kept up his rich vein of form to beat home favourite Rasmus Magi in the 400m hurdles in 49.30 to 49.48 on Saturday. It was Barr’s second fastest ever time for the distance, just behind his 48.90 national record from Geneva last week, and set up the Irish team well for the rest of the two-day competition.

Brian Gregan (Clonliffe Harriers) followed suit in the 400m flat and took the win in 46.54 in blustery conditions.

Paul Robinson (St Coca’s) further underlined Ireland’s strength on the track to win a tactical 1500m in 3:51.05 with a good turn of speed over the last 100m of the race.

Kevin Batt (St Coca’s) made his debut for Ireland in the 5,000m and the Australian born athlete performed well to finish third in another tactical race in 14:17.35.

Day two provided further joy on the track with Mark English (UCD) dominating the 800m in 1:47.63. Fionnuala Britton’s marked improvement continued and she ran a European qualifying time (15:30.00) of 15:23.37 to finish second behind Portugal’s Ana Dulce Felix’s 15:21.32.

Ultimately there was a lack of strength and depth in the field events with Belarus winning the competition on 302.5 points with Norway (300) second and Finland (290.5) third – all three qualified for the Super League. Ireland totalled 253.5 points to rank 19th best nation overall in Europe (including the 12 teams in the Super League).

Zoe Brown jumped to a new personal best of 4.40m in the pole vault in the second round of the National League in Athlone yesterday to qualify for the European Championships in August.