You know what they say about making championship finals, although Nicola Tuthill’s lofty medal effort fell just short on day two of the European Under-23 Athletics Championships, the Bandon thrower ending up fourth in a highly competitive women’s hammer in Espoo, Finland.
Still only 19, eligible for another championships in two years’ time, Tuthill threw her best of 66.43m in the second round, briefly putting her in the bronze medal position.
After Silja Kosonen delighted the home crowd with a championship record of 73.71m with her first throw, ultimately good enough for gold, before silver and bronze eventually went to Great Britain’s Charlotte Payne, who moved to second with her final round throw of 69.22m, Aileen Kuhn from Germany securing bronze with a second round best of 68.30m.
Still a fine show from Tuthill, her 66.43m just off her record lifetime best of 67.85m, set last month when finishing second in the European team championships in Chorzow in Poland.
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On the track
Jack Raftery had claimed his spot in the 400m final after running a lifetime best of 45.89 seconds on Thursday, and ran close to that again on the wet track on Friday, running 46.00 in lane eight, the Dubliner seventh best on the night.
As expected victory there went to Havard Bentdal Ingvaldsen from Norway; still only 20, with a 44.86 to his name already this season, he kicked down the homestretch to win in 45.13, Lionel Spitz from Switzerland second in a lifetime best of 45.27.
Israel Olatunde, pressed to the wire in qualifying for the final of the 100m, required something special to challenge for a medal. The Irish record holder, who ran 10.17 seconds en route to making the European senior final in Munich last summer, isolated in lane eight, started well, before ending up eighth in 10.44.
Defending that title was Britain’s Jeremiah Azu, who won bronze in Munich summer, running 10.05, ahead of the big Dutch hope Raphael Bouju, second in 10.44.
There are still Irish medal hopes over the weekend, with Cian McPhillips of UCD booking his place in Sunday’s 800m final (4.10pm Irish time), fourth in his heat in a time of 1.46.35, ultimately ranking as 4th fastest overall.
Sophie O’Sullivan and Sarah Healy are first and second in the 1,500m on the European Under-23 rankings for this season, the 4:01.75 Healy clocked in Ostrava last month third on the Irish all-time. At age 22, she’ll start Sunday’s final as favourite, assuming she can navigate her heat on Saturday.
