PAUL HESSION BOOKED his spot in the final of the men’s 200m at the European Atheltics Championships today.
The Galway sprinter ran a season best time of 20.75 in Helsinki, crossing the line just behind heat winner Likourgos Tsakonas (20.73) from Greece.
“It was really tough to stay in your lane,” said Hession afterwards. “I have never experienced anything like that before. The race itself was fine, I was fairly isolated out there in lane seven so I didn’t really know who was near me. I am looking forward to the semi finals later.”
Steven Colvert didn’t have such luck in negotiating the lanes. The Crusaders AC man was disqualified from the heats of the men’s 200m, having finished in a time of 21.24. That would have been good enough to qualify him for the semi finals as a fastest loser but a DQ appeared next to his name soom after as a result of a lane infringement.
“That was a shocking race; I need to look back at the tape with my coach and see what went wrong,” said Colvert. “I would usually start catching people in the home straight. The bends were really tight and hard to navigate.”
Colvert’s training partner Paul Hession said afterwards “I know Steven is in much better shape than that. He is in at least 20.4 shape, the guy has been flying in training.”
Amy Foster (City of Lisburn) was the last of the Irish in action in the women’s 200m heats, finishing in a time of 24.04, meaning she won’t progress.
- Paul Hession (Athenry AC) will be back in action later today in the semi-finals of the men’s 200m at 18.33 Irish time. Jessie Barr (Ferrybank AC) goes in the women’s 400m hurdles final at 18.00 and finally Brian Gregan (Clonliffe Harriers AC) is in action in the men’s 400m final at 19.25.
