Irish athletes lose out in opening World Championships heats
Ben Reynolds and Ciara Everard bowed out in the opening round heats at the World Athletics Championships early this morning in Beijing.
Reynolds came within 0.11 seconds of reaching the semi-finals of the 110m hurdles, coming seventh in his opening round heat in a time of 13.72 seconds as Hansle Parchment of Jamaica took the honours in 13.33.
The Holywood hurdler would have got through had he been closer to his lifetime best of 13.48 set this season, but a recent niggle saw him sit out training the past eight days.
Despite elimination – he was ninth fastest-loser when only the top four would make it – Reynolds is enthusiastic about his Beijing campaign.
Reynolds said: “All in all I’m pleased with the race. Preparation had been awesome until most recently, and then not the most pristine recent eight days.
“I’ve been resting, so just pleased to be able to get going and produce a nice enough run. After the eight days of rest, today felt pretty okay. From experience, it takes around ten days to re-settle.
“Mostly the body feels phenomenal. Everything has to feel perfect to let things go fast, fast, fast.
“It was a good enough run for a bit of a prep experience. You feel the energy all around. It was an awesome experience certainly.”
In contrast, Ciara Everard was critical of her tactics after elimination in the heats of the women’s 800m.
The UCD athlete from Kilkenny finished seventh in her heat in a time of 2:03.98, just under three seconds slower than her lifetime best set at the Dutch IFAM meeting in Oordegem in May.
Poland’s Sofia Ennaoui won the heat in 2:01.16 after falling well off the back in the opening lap, with Everard well ahead in sixth.
However, the Irish athlete felt she should have moved up the field in the final lap instead of taking a place at the back of the bunch.
Having finished sixth at the Universiade World University Games in Gwangju last month, Everard said: “I think tactically I ran a really poor race, which is unlike me.
“I think I positioned myself well for the first lap, but then what kept happening was I had to break beyond girls to try and get a move going.
“I’m annoyed because I actually finished feeling fine. I’ve had a bout of illness after Korea (World University Games) and I wasn’t sure where I was at but that shows my form was there. Tactically I just got it wrong.
“I should have positioned myself on the outside. I was in on the inside so I was breaking a lot, catching girls’ strides, and that’s not where you want to be.”
Kelly Proper is looking to continue her successful season during the night session in Beijing.
Her 200m heat is underway at 12.29pm Irish time.
