PHIL HEALY WAS eliminated at the semi-final stage of the women’s 400m at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade today.
Healy finished sixth in her semi-final in a time of 52.40, a race won by Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas in a season’s best time of 51.38.
“That race shows the joys of indoor running, it’s messy”, Healy told David Gillick of RTÉ post-race. “Everyone crossing in, I was running really wide down the back straight but I couldn’t move back in as it would have been veering in and out too much. It’s a 52.4, or something like that, obviously I would have liked to have been up the field further, but it’s a world semi-final. When you’re in a semi you want to get the final but it wasn’t to be today.
“The aim was to be third or fourth on the bell. The Lithuanian [Modesta Justė Morauskaitė] came on the inside and pushed me out”, Healy “To be up there with the best is unreal, but I’ll definitely go back and look at it as it was certainly messy. But to come out and run the semi-final, this day last week I wasn’t going to be on the plane at all at all. It’s been an unbelievable indoor season, so I have to be happy and take that onto the outdoors.”
Healy’s build-up to the championships was interrupted by Covid, but she nonetheless won her heat this morning in a time of 51.75. That was the third-fastest qualifying time, behind only Miller-Uibo and Femke Bol.
Meanwhile, Molly Scott finished seventh in her semi-final in the 60m and won’t advance to the final.
“I was 0.04 off my PB but I came here to PB so I am disappointed”, she told Gillick.
