Sarah Lavin goes close but is forced to settle for fourth 

Ireland’s Sarah Lavin dejected after finishing fourth. Pic: Morgan Treacy/Inpho

She’s still banging on that door, the noise now louder than ever, Sarah Lavin hoping one of these days it just might swing open. 

But this wasn’t quite the time. Competing against the strongest field in European hurdles history, the Limerick athlete couldn’t quite summon the kind of stars-aligning sorcery she’d have needed to make it on the podium.

But she got close, so close, finishing a fine fourth in the European Indoor 60m hurdles final in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, clocking a season’s best of 7.92. Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji took gold in a European record of 7.67, with Dutch star Nadine Visser second in a national record of 7.72 and Poland’s Pia Skrzyszowska third in 7.83. 

Then came Lavin, smiling through her frustration, shrugging off the inevitable tinge of sadness, pride still firmly on the scene.

“It’s meh,” she said. “I feel I can get into the 7.80s and I didn’t execute that, and that’s my only disappointment. The three girls ahead of me literally had the race of their lives. If I need to compete with those girls, my first hurdle has to be better. I have the raw materials and if I’m there at hurdle one, I’m in the mix.” 

Lavin has now made four straight finals at major indoor championships: seventh at the World Indoors in 2022, sixth at the Europeans in 2023 and fifth at the World’s last year. 

And now this: fourth. 

“I’m going in the right direction anyway,” she laughed, before looking ahead to the World Indoors in China later this month, where Lavin again looks capable of making a final.

Granted, she does already have a senior medal for Ireland, winning a European Games bronze in the 100m hurdles in 2023, but that’s an event that doesn’t hold quite the same prestige as this, given nations are split into separate leagues and Lavin only found out she won that medal days after her race, when two other athletes beat her time in the top division.

And so she went to the line with a burning desire to get in the top three, knowing she needed the perfect race. Her form had been so-so during the indoor season but in this championship cauldron she again came alive, a testament to her tenacity and composure under pressure. “I have to be proud,” she said.

Elsewhere, Jakob Ingebrigtsen reasserted his dominance to win his third straight European Indoor 1500m title, winding the pace up steadily over the closing four laps to hit the line a comfortable winner in 3:36.56.

There was heartbreak for Sharlene Mawdsley, the Newport sprinter forced to withdraw from the 400m heats after suffering a slight injury in her hamstring during the warm-up. “My hamstring was a bit tight yesterday and I had Physio just before the call room and it settled it,” she said. 

“This morning, I felt good but it just persisted and if I went on the track, it would have got worse and worse. I didn’t want to tear it completely.”

Irish in action, Saturday (all times Irish) 

9.20am: Sarah Healy, Jodie McCann, women’s 3000m heats 

11am: Bori Akinola, men’s 60m heats 

11.45am: Andrew Coscoran, James Gormley, men’s 3000m heats 

12.17pm: Orla Comerford, mixed para 60m 

6.10pm: *Bori Akinola, men’s 60m semi-final 

7.13pm: Mark English, Cian McPhillips, men’s 800m semi-finals 

8.40pm: *Bori Akinola, men’s 60m final *Pending qualification