Damian Lawlor

Once the starters signal was given Ethan Carr (Ballymena & Antrim) was out aggressively from his starting blocks in the fifth heat of the 400m. Ethan had the pedal firmly on the metal as he ran a lightning quick first two hundred metres that saw him eating up the stagger on Spain’s Mario Herrera who was in lane eight. In the second half of the race Ethan had to dig deep as the stagger began to even out and it was clear he’d have to fight all the way to the line to secure qualification. This he did as he held on for fifth.

In the sweltering heat of the early evening in Rieti Evelyn Kwik (DSD) went off conservatively in the fourth heat of the women’s 400m. The Dublin woman was able to judge her pace perfectly as Emilija Viksna from Latvia in the lane outside her has a personal best only one hundredth of a second faster than her own best mark for the distance.

The depth of middle distance talent that Irish athletics clubs have unearthed in recent years is well illustrated by the selection headache that developed for the girls 800m for the 2026 European U18 Championships. European Athletics set the qualification standard at 2:12.80 but Athletics Ireland set the standard to make the Irish squad as a seemingly aggressive 2:09.50. A tough task. Well six young women met the challenge.

It is of course a truism that there is no bad day to run a personal best at any distance but definitely for Arron Whelan (Dunboyne AC) being able to run 53.13 in his 400m Hurdles heat showed that he has peaked perfectly for these European U18 Championships in Rieti, Italy. The time was almost a second faster than his previous best of 54.07.

Elle-Kate McRae (Midleton AC) was in scintillating form this morning in Heat 3 of the 400m Hurdles. The young Cork woman ran a controlled first 200m and was even at one point passed by Slovenian Iva Škrabar Dizdarevic who started in lane six just inside Elle-Kate. However as the stagger ended after the second bend it was clear that Elle-Kate had judged her pace superbly and she was now in the lead and focused on qualification. She crossed the line in 59.09 not only an improvement on her previous best of 59.43 but also a national U18 record bettering

In her heat the of girl’s 400m yesterday Evelyn Kwik (Dundrum South Dublin AC) was able to run a controlled effort in the early stages of the race. Today on the start line for her semi-final she knew if she could run close to her personal best of 54.61 she would be in contention for a place in the final. However in contrast to yesterday in the first semi-final Evelyn would have to judge the pace by herself as she was out in lane eight and would have to run blind to the progress of her opposition for the first three hundred metres.

Right from the starters pistol Lucie Cawley (Sligo A.C.) and Ally Duffy (Tullamore Harriers) were in contention in the 2000m steeplechase here at the European Athletics U18 Championships. Lucie Jílková from Czechia set out at a fast pace but ten of the fourteen starters were packed tightly around her for the first kilometre which they passed in 3:18.

In the first heat of the girls 800m semifinals Tara-Rose Smith (Finn Valley AC) made the wise decision to hang back in fourth on the first lap as Živa Remic from Slovenia set out at breakneck speed. However despite her caution the pace was still outrageous. Tara-Rose got the bell with the clock showing sixty seconds and not only was the Slovenian continuing the brutal pace but another pair of competitors had closed up on the Finn Valley athlete. Tara-Rose fought on and in the last hundred metres was still in contention for a qualifying spot. She just could not get on terms with Spain’s Aitana Navajo who secured the last qualifying spot from heat one. Still Tara-Rose’s brave run was rewarded with a fantastic new personal best of 2:06.73. The semifinal was so fast that the young Slovenian had run a new Championship Best Performance of 2:04.19.

The new Louth GAA stadium is to be known as the Edward Goodman Park. The Louth board has announced the Goodman Foundation as the naming rights holder for the venue which is due to open in 2027.

Liam Cahill has been ratified as Tipperary senior hurling manager for another three years, with the Ballingarry man set to continue in the role up to the end of the 2029 season.