A total of eight athletes from Northern Ireland have been named on a 45 person strong Irish team who will be competing this weekend in the European Team Athletics Championships in Tallinn, Estonia. The 8 include 5 competitors who were named a week ago in the NI athletics team for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. The Irish team will face Estonia, Belarus, Greece, Norway, Romania, Portugal, Finland, Belgium, Hungary, Slovenia and Lithuania during the two-day competition, with the top three finishing teams earning a promotion to the following years Super League. Ireland hosted the team championships last year in Dublin with the Irish team achieving its highest ever placing finishing seventh. With one of the strongest teams in recent years set to line out Ireland will be targeting a top five position at the 2014 event in Estonia. Top Irish competitor will be Ferrybank’s 400 metres hurdler Thomas Barr whose second Irish record at the weekend of 48.90 seconds ranks him top European and No. 6 in the World. North Down’s high hurdler Ben Reynolds won his event in Dublin last year in a time of 13.71 seconds. He will be aiming to claim victory again in view of his recent superb form. In the Women’s 100 metres City of Lisburn AC’s Amy Foster will also be hoping for a good performance following her recent NI record of 11.40 seconds. Newcastle’s Kerry O’Flaherty will also be aiming to get close to her new NI steeplechase record of 9.52.94. Glasgow bound Christine McMahon will be making her debut in the competition in the 400m hurdles. The Queens student has also been named in the 400m relay. Also making a first appearance is Finn Valley’s Dempsey McGuigan who was selected on the strength of his 66.62 metres hammer throw in May. Strabane based Anne Marie McGlynn will race over 3,000 metres in which she set a PB last month of 9.21.96 which places her 3rd in the current Irish list. Anne Marie is enjoying her best season ever with a 34 secs improvement in her 5,000 metres time. Also selected after a late start to the season is javelin thrower Matthew Martin of North Down. Irish Universities long jump champion Adam McMullen (Crusaders AC) has also been named. See all the action Live this weekend Saturday & Sunday 11am to 3pm on IRISH TV - SKY 191, Eircom eVision 191, Freesat 400, All Free to Air Boxes and online at irishtv.ie athleticsireland.ie/news/european-team-champs-on-irish-tv
Posted on: Fri, 20 Jun 2014 16:21:33 +0000
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