Ireland's Travers reaches final in Prague
Ireland’s progress at the European Indoor Athletics Championships in Prague has continued with John Travers reaching tomorrow’s final of the men’s 1500, clocking a personal best time into the bargain.
The Donore Harriers athlete went around in 3 minutes, 41.37 seconds – beating his previous lifetime best by over a second, and his season’s best by two.
Germany’s Homiyu Tesfaye went out very strong, opening up a large lead that he held for most of the race before tying up in the final lap, but still winning.
With the rest content to run their own race, Travers stayed near the back of the bunch before accelerating in the final 300 metres.
Finishing third behind Tesfaye – winning in 3:40.05 - and Artur Ostrowski of Poland, Travers had to sit through the other three semi-finals before progressing, though his time was beaten by no other athlete, and proved to be quicker than the other three winning times.
Travers said: “You can never give out about a personal best. I’m a little upset I didn’t get automatic qualification. It was definitely there.
“It’s a pity considering how the race panned out, but I stayed calm and didn’t panic.
“I didn’t get uptight and just ran as good as I could. This is probably my best ever performance in a Championships.”
Danny Mooney of Letterkenny AC finished sixth in his semi-final in a time of 3:48.96.
Mark English, Declan Murray and Ciara Everard are involved in 800m semi-finals from 5:00pm Irish time.
