Landmark run for Sophie O’Sullivan in second-place Italy finish

Ireland’s Sophie O’Sullivan Pic ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy

Sophie O’Sullivan produced a huge run to smash her 800m personal best and finish second at the Grand Prix Brescia in Italy on Sunday, the 24-year-old clocking 1:58.60 to come home behind Shafiqua Maloney (1:58.08) of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

O’Sullivan’s previous best was the 1:59.65 she ran in London earlier this month and her time at the Continental Tour Silver meeting moved her second on the Irish all-time list, less than a tenth of a second behind Ciara Mageean’s national record of 1:59.51.

Rhasidat Adeleke was in action at the same meeting, the 24-year-old Dubliner finishing sixth over 200m in 22.85 (0.0m/s), with victory going to Nigeria’s Favour Ofili in 22.03.

It was Adeleke’s first race since breaking her Irish record and clocking 22.28 to win 200m silver at the Europeans in Birmingham earlier this month. She had been listed to compete over 100m in Brescia before switching to the 200m in recent days.

It’s unlikely to be enough to move her into a qualifying position for next month’s World Ultimate Championships in Budapest. However, her season is set to continue, with Adeleke signed up to compete over 200m at the Athlos meeting in London on September 18.

Sophie Becker, who like Adeleke had been hampered by injury earlier in the season, had a breakthrough performance at the Memorial Zbigniewa Ludwichowskiego in Poland, the Wexford sprinter clocking 36.99 to finishing third in the 300m behind Poland’s Kinga Gacka (36.50) and Canada’s Grace Konrad (36.74).

That moved Becker second on the Irish all-time list behind Adeleke’s national record of 36.30 and smashed her previous 300m best of 38.89.

Elsewhere, European bronze medallist Andrew Coscoran returned to action at the ISTAF meeting in Berlin, the Dubliner finishing seventh in the 1500m in 3:34.37, a race won by Australia’s Cam Myers in 3:30.96.

Coscoran’s season’s best is the 3:31.65 he ran at the Rabat Diamond League in May, and he had been chasing qualification in Berlin for the Ultimate Championships.

With only 13 spots in the men’s 1500m, Coscoran had been occupying the final qualifying position earlier this week based on his world ranking, but he will likely be overtaken by a number of athletes when the rankings update in the days ahead after a fast 1500m at the Zurich Diamond League on Thursday night, with the qualification window closing on Tuesday morning.

Mark English is comfortably within a qualifying position for the men’s 800m, the Donegal man set to bypass this week’s Diamond League final in Brussels as he aims to crown his season in style after winning the European title in Birmingham. Sharlene Mawdsley is also currently within the quota for Budapest – sitting 14th in the rankings for the women’s 400m with 16 places available.

Sarah Lavin finished eighth in the 100m hurdles in Berlin in 13.40 (-0.2m/s), which was down on her season’s best of 13.07 from Birmingham earlier this month. Victory went to Jamaica’s Danielle Williams in 12.78. Lauren Callaghan finished eighth in the long jump with a best of 6.24m.