Proper progresses for Ireland but Reynolds pulls out of 20km walk
Kelly Proper breezed into the semi-finals of the women’s 200m at the European Athletics Championships in Zurich this morning, taking an automatic qualifying spot by coming fourth in her first-round heat.
The Ferrybank AC athlete from Waterford was never under any real pressure, clocking 23.37 seconds – close to her personal best of 23.16 set this summer – to book her passage through to tonight’s penultimate round.
The heat was won by Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith in 22.75 seconds, with Myriam Soumaré of France second in 22.97 and Hanna-Maari Latvala of Finland rallying to take third spot in 23.13. Then came Proper.
With the 14th fastest time of the round, Proper will have her work cut out to reach the final, but is happy with her morning’s work: “These things are all about progressing through the rounds and I did that.
“I’m going to forget about that race and move onto the next one.
“It’s a solid time. This time last year it would have been a huge PB. I’ve run faster than that this year so that’s a good thing for me that I can come out this morning and go faster.”
In the city centre, Laura Reynolds was just beyond the midway point when she pulled out of the women’s 20k walk.
The 25-year-old from Leitrim, who finished sixth at last year’s Universiade World University Games in Kazan, was pushing for 20th position when she withdrew just before the 12km mark.
Russia took gold – again - through 24-year-old discovery Elmira Alembekova, who covered the waterfront circuit by the banks of the Limmat river in 1 hour, 27 minutes, 56 seconds.
A further eleven seconds back was Lyudmila Olyanovska of Ukraine in second, with 19-year-old international cyclist Anezka Drahotova third, Vera Sokolova of Russia fourth and Eleonora Giorgi of Italy fifth.
Tonight, Christine McMahon goes in the 400m hurdles semi-final at 5:20 Irish time, with Proper back in the 200m picture at 6:40pm.
No medals are possible for Ireland today on the 31st anniversary of Eamonn Coghlan’s 5000m World Championships success in Helsinki, and twelve months to the day since Rob Heffernan won world 50k walking gold in Moscow.
