Athletics 2023

Great 1-2 for O'Sullivan and Healy at the Euro Under 23s. Just burned off the rest of the field with ease on the last lap.

And a new 1500m National Record for Coscoran today as well as Olympic qualification.

Very impressive run by Andrew Coscoran, shaving two seconds off his own NR. He should absolutely be targeting the final in Budapest.

Shout out also to Sarah Lavin who ran 12.79 in horrendous conditions in Santry at the Morton games on Friday. The 12.6xs and Derval O’Rourke’s NR is there for the taking in more optimal conditions.

The women’s 400m was also interesting today in Silesia. Mariledy Paulino, one of the favourites for gold in Budapest didn’t look great at all, nor did Sada Williams. On the other hand, both Natalia Kaczmarek and Lieke Klaver announced themselves as potential medalists, running 49.48 and 49.81 respectively. Rhasidat Adeleke will face both of them in Monaco. Will be fascinating to see how it plays out.

Definitely - the overall standard of athletes coming though is way ahead of what was happening in Sonia's and then Derval O'Rourke's time. I suspect the quality of local coaching has gone up considerably in the last decade.

Rhasidat has announced this evening that she is going pro - busy day in Irish athletics!

Sophie says post race that she tends to get distracted mid race. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

I think at least some of that may be down to her very obvious Australianness - having spent most of her life there, followed by the US scholarship, she has a very different personality to most Irish athletes.

I agree on the last point - she and Sophie don't look close or as if they are bosom buddies.

I'm not sure what she could have done differently though. She quickened and quickened on that last lap and dropped all the field, bar one - it didn't look like she had messed up tactically.

Isn't that her usual style though? She tends not to come from behind but rather to lead out on the last lap.

I'd be a tiny bit critical of her stance during the interview tbh. You have to learn how to lose graciously as well as win graciously - there are lots of races where tactics don't quite go to plan and you don't do as well as you expected.

I'm not experienced in race tactics but Sarah seemed slow to react to Sophie's move and when she did it was too late. I thought maybe Sarah lost concentration and didn't respond to Sophie's kick quickly enough? It took Sophie to run a PB to claim the gold whereas Sarah seemed to be well within herself for Silver. Either way the Nats will be interesting. Sarah should definitely be out to right the wrong...