Sarah Healy produces season’s best at Silesia Diamond League in Poland

Healy finished ninth in a race won by Ethiopia’s Tsige Duguma

Sarah Healy produced a big season’s best at the Silesia Diamond League in Poland. Pic: ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy.

Sarah Healy produced a big season’s best of 3:57.42 over 1500m at the Silesia Diamond League in Poland on Sunday, though the Dubliner was unable to match the world’s best up front – finishing ninth in a race won by Ethiopia’s Tsige Duguma in 3:55.06.

Healy’s previous best this year was the 4:01.50 she ran in Paris in June and she went four seconds quicker on Sunday, coming up just shy of her personal best of 3:57.15 from last year.

“I felt OK, I just gave it my all,” she said. “I ran 3:57 a lot so I would have liked a little quicker, but it's a lot more positive than what I've done so far this year.”

Healy missed the indoor season due to injury but impressed after making a late start to the outdoor season, setting a 3000m PB of 8:25.63 in London in July.

She came up short of a medal at the Europeans in Birmingham, finishing fourth in the 5000m and fifth in the 1500m, and had hoped for more when lining up against a loaded field in Silesia.

“I hadn't really gotten in a fast 1500m yet this year,” she said. “I was in one at the start of the year that I wasn't really ready for so it kind of felt like my first hard 15 and it was almost getting used to that burn. I would have liked a bit of a stronger last lap.”

Healy said she’s unsure of her racing plans for the rest of the season.

Norwegian superstar Jakob Ingebrigtsen was in action over 1500m in Silesia but the Tokyo Olympic champion – who returned from an 11-month absence to win the European 5000m title in Birmingham – didn’t quite have the gears he needed, finishing fourth in 3:31.19, with victory going to USA’s Ethan Strand in 3:30.77 and reigning Olympic champion Cole Hocker third in 3:31.16.

World champion Melissa Jefferson-Wooden won an all-star clash in the women’s 100m, the US star clocking 10.78 (0.6m/s) to beat Olympic champion Julien Alfred (10.83), while 2023 world champion Sha’Carri Richardson was third in 10.96.

Meanwhile, Rhasidat Adeleke will return to action over 100m at the Grand Prix Brescia in Italy next Sunday where she will take on Britain’s Amy Hunt. Adeleke smashed her Irish 200m record when clocking 22.28 to win silver behind Hunt in Birmingham, and if conditions are good then the national 100m record of 11.13 – set at nationals in 2024 – could be under threat.

Sophie O’Sullivan will race over 800m at the same meeting while she is also among the entries for the 1500m at the Zurich Diamond League on Friday.

Andrew Coscoran, who won bronze at the Europeans in Birmingham, will return to racing over 1500m at the ISTAF in Berlin next Sunday, the Dubliner looking to seal his qualification for next month’s World Ultimate Championships in Budapest (September 11-13).

Coscoran, Mark English, Sharlene Mawdsley and Cian McPhillips are the four Irish athletes currently sitting within the necessary quota in their events, with the qualification deadline closing on September 1.