SOPHIE O’SULLIVAN AND Sarah Healy both narrowly missed out on automatic qualification for the semi-finals of the women’s 1,500m at the Stade de France this morning.
O’Sullivan produced a superb run to clock 4:00.23 on her Olympic debut, smashing her personal best by nearly two seconds despite having her momentum checked after colliding with Japan’s Nozomi Tanaka.
However it wasn’t enough to see the 22-year-old into tomorrow’s semi-finals as a seventh-place finish saw her miss out on automatic qualification by one place, with the top six advancing.
O’Sullivan will have another chance to advance in tomorrow’s repechage.
In this morning’s second heat, Sarah Healy was pipped to sixth place on the line, running 4:02.91.
Healy looked on course to finish sixth but a strong finish by Maia Ramsden saw the New Zealander overtake Healy just short of the finish line to clinch automatic qualification.
Healy will now join O’Sullivan in tomorrow’s repechage.
Daly to centre is a great decision. Farrell to replace Freish doesn’t quiet cut it for me. Plus Abrahams and kilgallon can then play wing instead of Daly.
@Sean O’Maolain: Daly excelled at outside centre when Ireland U20’s reached their first U20 World Cup final
Finally Daly at 13, really hope he goes well, Sean Edogbo is a move too, would prefer Quinn at 7 too