ATHLETICS EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS DAY THREE:A COUPLE of other Irish medal chances seemed to disappear under the dark skies of Barcelona last night.
Although where there’s finalists there’s always hope. Paul Hession just about put himself in the showdown of the 200 metres, and considering his string of near misses in other years – and his becoming the first Irishman to ever make it – that’s good enough for now.
Still, Hession only qualified as the first of two fastest losers in the semi-finals, and thus finds himself in lane two for the final – which is set for 6.25 this evening, Irish time, two hours before David Gillick’s 400 metres final. They’re rooming together here, so there was plenty to discuss last night.
“I still think it’s going to be tight,” said Hession, who ran 20.67 to finish fourth. “I mean it won’t take something ridiculous to win a medal. I’m a little surprised and disappointed I didn’t qualify easier. We’d torrential rain before, and that didn’t help. But that’s no excuse. It was the same for everyone.
“If my last 50 was better than it was I would have been third. But if I just get in the mix off the bend, trust my strength in the straight, and then let it roll. I’ll have had 24 hours to recover, and relax in the room with Mr Gillick. We’ll both come out and it give it a go.”
Indeed Hession’s strength may be his experience. Jaysuma Ndure of Norway, the lanky Gambian-born sprinter, won the semi-final in 20.50 and looks a definite medal contender.
But the gold medal looks certain to go to the new great white hope of men’s sprinting, Christophe Lemaitre of France, winner of the 100 metres on Wednesday night – and winner of the second semi-final here in 20.39.
Hession will also have to beat the British duo of Marlon Devonish and Christian Malcolm, plus 100-metre bronze medallist Martial Mbandjock of France – while running in the difficult lane two
“Well, I ran an Irish record from lane two,” he reminded us. “I’ve experienced a lot of near misses in the past, and that’s made me tougher. You dream about championship finals, whether it’s Worlds or Europeans. It’s what you train for. And I’m going to enjoy every minute of it no matter where I finish.”
Something about the way Alistair Cragg qualified for the 5,000 metres final suggested he may have turned a corner, but still it didn’t suggest he can win a medal. Cragg did plenty of the early running in the first semi-final to establish the strong pace, only to find himself run out of the top five automatic qualifiers over the final lap – finishing sixth in 13:37.66, behind the unknown Azerbaijani, Hayle Ibrahimov, who clocked 13:32.98.
That still saw Cragg through as the fastest of the five losers, but there were some seriously fast finishers in the second semi-final too, which was won by Britain’s 10,000-metre champion Mo Farah in 13:38.26. So, Cragg clearly has a battle on his hands.
“Well, I think I’m good enough,” he said. “I know the other guys think that as well. But once you get into the final it’s a whole new race. I’ll have fresh legs again. I’m feeling good. I wasn’t feeling too good when the people were coming by me, but I think I played about too much. I’ll just try to run a little smarter in the final and see where that takes me.”
No such luck for Mark Christie, who bowed out in the second semi-final in 11th place after clocking 14:12.68 – and admitted his disgust at that.
Ailis McSweeney was fairly devastated after her semi-final of the 100 metres, not about her performance – as she finished a close sixth, missing the final by just one place – but because her time of 11.32 was ruled out for record purposes due to the +2.2 tailwind. It would have bettered again the 11.40 she set a few weeks ago: “But I do at least know I can run a lot faster,” said McSweeney.
The final was later won by the German Verena Sailer in 11.10, who in the process denied France a men’s-women’s sprint double as that was just enough to beat Veronique Mang into silver, in 11.11, and French team-mate Myriam Soumare, who won bronze in 11.18.
David McCarthy had endured a rough ride in making the semi-finals of the 800 metres, nearly shouldered out of it by the reckless Dutchman Robert Lathouwers, and last night found it hard going again. He left himself with a little too much to do over the final 300 metres, and although he briefly got up to fourth, faded to sixth, clocking 1:49.14. Only the top three were sure to progress to the final – and leading the way was Britain’s Michael Rimmer in 1:47.67.
Most of the remaining Irish athletes come into the action today, including Robert Heffernan, who is seeking some consolation for his fourth place in the 20km walk on Tuesday by taking on the gruelling, four-hour 50km walk – although he admits it’s a case of taking that brutal distance each step as it comes.
How the Irish fared
200m Men Round 1(Paul Hession, 2nd, HT4, 20.69, qual; Steven Colvert, 7th, HT3, 21.14, dnq)
5,000m Men Round 1(Alistair Cragg, 6th, SF1, 13:37.66, qual; Mark Christie, 11th, SF2, 14:12.68, dnq)
200m Men Semi-final(Paul Hession, 4th, SF1, 20.67, qual)
100m Women Semi-final(Ailis McSweeney, 6th, SF2, 11.32, dnq) 800m Men Semi-final (David McCarthy, 6th, SF2, 1:49.14, dnq)
FINALS
High Jump:1 A Shustov (Rus) 2.33m, 2 I Ukhov (Rus) 2.31, 3 M Bernard (Brit) 2.29.
100m women:1 V Sailer 11.10; 2 V Mang (Fra) 11.11; M Soumare (Fra) 11.18
Mens triple jump:1. P Idowu (Brit) 17.81; 2. M Oprea (Rom) 17.51; 3. T Tamgho (Fra) 17.45.
