Euro Teams: English wins 800m, Ireland safe in 8th place

Mark English

Mark English picked up maximum points for Ireland when he won the 800m on the final day of the European Team Track and Field Championships in Vaasa, Finland today.

English’s time of 1:49.02 was enough to see off the challenge of  Denmark’s Andreas Bube and Andreas Kramer of Sweden.

Later, in the final event of the day, English helped the Irish 4 x 400m team to second place, with Thomas Barr, Brian Gregan and junior athlete Chris O’Donnell making up the quartet. The women’s 4 x 400m team of Sinead Denny, Phil Healy, Jenna Bromell and Sharlene Mawdsley also finished second.

Sommer Lecky, competing in her first senior international, finished a solid fourth in the high jump, with Sarah McCarthy also fourth in the long jump. In the 5000, Ann Marie McGlynn clocked up a personal best time of 16:03.64 to finish a close sixth. Hero of the day was Marcus Lawler who pulled a hamstring soon after the start of the 200m, but limped home to gain five vital points for his team.

Overall Ireland dropped from seventh place overnight to eighth, enough to keep them in league 1 for the 2019 competition.

Women –
200m: 7 Phil Healy 24.32.
1500m: 9 Emma Mitchell 4:19.20.
5000m: 6 Ann Marie McGlynn 16:03.64 (PB)
100H: 8 Sarah Lavin 13.84.
Long jump: 4 Sarah McCarthy 6.21.
High jump: 4 Sommer Lecky 1.80.
Shot: 10 Niamh Fogarty 13.10 (PB)
Discus: 11 Clare Fitzgerald 46.45.
4×400: 1 Romania 3:31.83, 2 Ireland (Sinead Denny, Phil Healy, Jenna Bromell, Sharlene Mawdsley)3.32.65
Men –
200m: 8 Marcus Lawler 1:23.93
800m: 1 Mark English 1:49.02, 2 Andreas Bube (Den) 1:49.14, 3 Andreas Kramer (Swe)
3000m: 5 John Travers 8:10.86.
Triple jump: 10 Denis Finnegan 15.12. Pole vault: 10 Sean Roth 4.70
Discus: 7 Colin Quirke 53.02.
Javelin: 10 Stephen Rice 63.17.
4×400: 1 Belgium 3:04.87, 2 Ireland (Chris O’Donnell, Brian Gregan, Thomas Barr, Mark English) 3:05.08
Overall – 1 Sweden 320.50, 2 Finland 314.50, 3 Switzerland 305.50, 4 Turkey 302, 5 Portugal 285, 6 Norway 272.50, 7 Romania 246, 8 Ireland 238, 9 Belgium 232.50, 10 Estonia 203, 11 Bulgaria 193.50, 12 Denmark 187.