European Championships: productive Saturday morning for Irish in Birmingham

Sophie O’Sullivan of Ireland competes in round 1 of the women's 1500m. Pic: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

Save for the 22 medal-drenched minutes on Thursday night, Saturday’s morning session was Ireland’s most productive and prominent of these European Championships.

Kate O’Connor rightly stole attention and headlines. Around her, though, was a succession of superb performances.

A sixth-place finish in the half-marathon race walk. Two qualifiers into the women's 1,500m final. Two sprint relay teams qualified for finals. No misprint with the latter, both 4x100m quartets advancing from their respective semis in the latest sign of rising Irish sprint standards.

And so from a green perspective, there was very little not to like about Day 6 at the Alexander Stadium.

David Kenny was the tone-setter. The 27-year-old Farranfore native finished sixth in the men’s half-marathon race walk. His 1:24.49, exactly one minute off bronze, was a PB and national record. Oisin Lane was 11th in 1:27.09, also a PB.

“First Europeans, I did qualify for the last three but didn’t make the startline. Delighted to come out here. I was in the lead group there for three-quarters of the race and the chasing pack for the rest of it, so it is a massive race for me, a massive step forward. It is great I could show what I’m capable of,” said Kenny.

As expected, Ireland will have two green suits in Sunday’s 1,500m women’s final. Lining up together in the second semi-final, Sarah Healy and Sophie O’Sullivan claimed a top six ticket.

Although both survived the potential for a fall earlier in the race, far more comfortable was it for Healy than O’Sullivan in the final chapter. The latter, boxed on the rail, had to come as wide as the third outside lane rounding the final bend to position herself for a successful late charge.

Healy was second behind Portugal's Patricia Silva, in 4:08.12, with O’Sullivan fifth in 4:08.88. Jodie McCann’s 4:14.63, in the opening semi, saw her trail home in 13th. The final goes off at 9.13pm tomorrow.

“I was definitely worried about [the last 100m], having done a 5K a few days ago, but today I felt great on that last lap,” said Healy in reference to Tuesday’s frustrating fourth in the 5,000m final.

“I took two days to recover and initially, it was a lot of frustration and annoyance at myself. But then I started to look at it as, I’ve had far worse results than fourth.” Said O’Sullivan, whose qualification has delivered a first ever major championship final appearance: “I knew if I could get to 100m left and was close enough, I could pick off those [in front to get a top six spot], but I didn’t get into the spot I wanted with a lap to go. Excited [for the final], first final.” There’ll be several finals of Irish involvement over the weekend after both 4x100m relay squads advanced. Advanced in national record style in the case of the women’s four.

Lucy-May Sleeman, Ciara Neville, Sarah Leahy, and Lauren Roy passed the baton around in 43.14 for fourth in the opening semi-final. It obliterated the 43.73 Irish record from last summer which Neville, Leahy, and Roy were a part of.

Sleeman was the new addition here. The Florida State student, fresh from a PB-stacked season on the US collegiate circuit, delivered the second fastest opening leg - 11.57 - of all eight sprinters.

Roy, a 200m semi-finalist here in Birmingham, held third on the last leg until the closing metres when pipped by the Portuguese. Such was the chaos of the second semi, a small q into the final was comfortably secured in the end.

“We’ve been putting so much effort into trusting each other this season and the past couple of months, and it has definitely paid off so well. We trust each other so much,” said Sleeman, with Roy adding, “we’re happy but we’re not shocked because we’ve put so much work in. We’ll go after it in the final”.

Just under half an hour later, the men followed in their fast footsteps. 39.13 from Bori Akinola, Sean Aigboboh, Marcus Lawler, and Israel Olatunde delivered another fourth-place finish. The small q again secured, not to mind a season’s best.

Aigboboh, Lawler, and Olatunde comprised three-quarters of the 38.88 Irish record from last summer. That is the time they will target in the final at 9.33pm later on Saturday, the women’s decider on track 15 minutes later.

“This is the strongest team we’ve had in the 4x100m. We’ve practiced our changeovers, they are smooth. We knew we had something big to pull out. Happy we made it into the final, and now in the final, we are going to dig even deeper to run a much bigger time,” said Akinola.