LAST UPDATE | 21 Aug 2022
SARAH LAVIN CAPPED a brilliant week for Ireland’s athletes at the European Championships in Munich as she finished fifth in the 100m hurdles final.
The Limerick hurdler clocked 12.86 seconds in the final as she chased home winner Pia Krzyszowska of Poland (12.53) and silver and bronze medallists Luca Kozak of Hungary (12.69) and Ditaji Kambundji of Switzerland (12.74).
Earlier on Sunday, Lavin took five-hundredths of a second off her personal best to book her place in the final.
Her time of 12.79 seconds saw her finish third in her semi-final, and that time was quick enough to see her through as one of the fastest non-automatic qualifiers.
“I had my best-ever run in the heat, I thought I could find maybe a little bit more in the final,” she told RTÉ Sport’s David Gillick afterwards.
“You want the medal — it’s the only currency any of us see.
“Back at the start of the year, if you said I’d be fifth in a European final, you’d have to be happy, relatively.”
“I want more, of course I do,” she added. “That’s just who I am.”
In the men’s 10,000m final, 21-year-old Efrem Gidey ran a personal best time of 27:59.22 to finish sixth.
Gidey, who was born in Eritrea and arrived in Ireland seeking asylum in 2017, kept pace with the frontrunners until the final 1,000 metres when the leaders started to pull away.
Ireland’s other representative in the final, Hiko Tonosa, finished 18th in a time of 28:38.82.
