THE FEELGOOD FACTOR in Irish athletics continued to swell at the Cork City Sports event in CIT last night as Phil Healy broke the Irish women’s 200 metre record.
Healy is the first Irish woman to run the sprint distance in less than 23 seconds, sneaking under that mark with 22.99 to give her a third-place finish.
On a night when she also ran the 100m, Healy was in good company on the podium after finishing behind Canadian Olympian Crystal Emmanuel (who also pipped Healy to the 100m win) and the USA’s Joanna Atkins, who holds her nation’s straight-line record over 200m.
A landmark night for Irish sprinting was capped as Marcus Lawler ran 20.40 in his 200 metres. Lawler’s run, the second-fastest Irish time ever behind Paul Hession’s 20.30 in 2007, earned him second behind Zambia’s Sydney Siame.
Sophie O’Sullivan continued her fine form after winning silver at the European U18 championships last week with victory in the junior 1500 in a time of 4.22.22.
