English through to final – just. Lawler 7th in 200m

Mark English just about made it through to the 800m final at the European U23 Track and Field Championships in Tallin Estonia after finishing third in his semi-final in 1:49.94.

English, who had held back in his heat and almost failed to progress, looked to be in control early in the race, sitting on the shoulder of Denis Kruger of Germany who was dominating the race upfront.

All changed in the charge for the line, when the fast finishing Spaniard Daniel Andujar passed English who just held on for third place. Kruger’s winning time was a pedestrian 1:49.89, with Andujar clocking 1:49.91 and  English 1:49.94.

In the opening semi-final, Karl Griffin had led the field coming into the finishing straight and ended up fourth in 1:48.65. It was enough to see him go through as a fastest loser. Winner Kuciapski has to be favourite to take gold tomorrow.

Marcus Lawler finished a disappointing seventh in the final of the men’s 200m – the last race of the day. Starting from the third lane, Lawler had defending champion and race favourite Karol Zalewski of Poland in his sights. He ran a good bend , but was caught for speed in the final metres of the race and finished in 20.94 – well off his best of 20.74 secs this season and slower than the 20.91 he ran in the heats.. Zalewski won in 20 .49 secs, with Britain’s Leon Reid second in 20.63 secs. Reid’s mother is from Belfast and he represented Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth Games last year.

In the 5000m, Ireland’s Brandon Hargreaves finished 12^th in 14:14.76. Winner Ali Kaya, a Kenyan who runs for Turkey, set a championship record of 13:20.16 on his way to victory. He had won the 10,000m title earlier in the week. Sarah McCarthy  missed out on a place in the long jump final finishing 15th overall in 6.10m – 6.19m would have made the final.

Results –

Men: 200m –  SF 1 (0.0): 1 K Zawewski (Pol) 20.50, 2 M Lawlor (Irl) 20.91, 3 S Samuelsson (Fin) 20.96. SF 2 (+0.1): 1 L Reid (GBR) 20.65, 2 J Jirka (Cze) 20.96, 3 B Mouthon (Swi) 20.98. Final: 1 Zawewski 20.49, 2 Reid 20.65, 3 Jirka 20.82…7 Lawler 20.94

800m –  SF 1: 1 A Kuciapski (Pol) 1:48.42, 2 S Ordonez (Spa) 1:48.50, 3 Z Rudolf (Slo) 1:48.57, 4 K Griffin (Irl) 1:48.65. SF 2: 1 D Kruger (Ger) 1:49.89, 2 D Andujar (Spa) 1:49.91, 3 M English (Irl) 1:49.94.