Kirk & Mills in 400m Final + Smyth 5th in world class field
Katie Kirk & Joanna Mills
Two Northern Ireland athletes excelled themselves today to make Friday's 400 metres final in the European Junior Athletics Championships in Tallinn.
Lagan Valley's Katie Kirk who was representing the GB & NI team finished 2nd in her semi-final race behind winner Adelina Pastor of Romania who set a PB of 52.77 secs.
17 year old Katie's time of 54.31 secs is her 2nd fastest ever behind her recent PB of 53.69 secs when winning the AAA's title last month. However,it was Ballymena's Joanna Mills who excelled all expectations by taking almost a third of a second off her PB to set new figures of 53.89 secs for 3rd place in her race.
The race was won by Bianca Razor of Romania in 53.08 secs with All Ireland champion Mills just losing out for 2nd place to Britain's Lucy James who was timed at 53.87 secs.
While both girls succeeded in qualifying from tough semi-finals they face an additional challenge in the final as they have unfortunately been drawn in unfavourable lanes. Katie will have a busy weekend as she will also be racing for the GB 4x400 relay team who will be favourites to medal on Sunday. Local hammer throwers were somewhat overawed by the classy Eastern European opposition. Andrew Doyle of Mid Ulster AC was 13th in his section with 61.50 metres.
Friday Timetable
In action tomorrow on day 2 of the Championships are (local times): Katie Kirk (Lagan Valley AC) in the final of the women�s 400m @ 4:45pm Joanna Mills (Ballymena & Antrim AC) in the final of the women�s 400m @ 4:45pm Saturday, 23 July 2011 � Morning 11:30 4x400 m Relay Women R1 Sunday, 24 July 2011 � Afternoon 17:05 1500m Women Final 19:00 4x400 m Relay Women Final
Lucerne International
NI sprint record holder Jason Smyth finished 5th tonight in a world class 100 metres lineup in the Lucerne International Athletics meeting in Switzerland.
The 24 year old Eglinton athlete was timed at 10.43 secs behind winner Nickel Ashande of Jamaica who won in 10.24 secs. The Lucerne track proved to be surprisingly slow for sprint times despite the negligible wind speed-the winner had recorded a world class 9.96 secs in Florida earlier in the season.
Jason had the satisfaction of defeating GB Olympian Simeon Williamson who has a PB of 10.03 secs and who only managed 7th in 10.56 secs. Jason's immediate plans include the Irish Championships early in August with his main objective being the World Champs in Daegu, Korea 3 weeks later.
