IRELAND’S SARAH HEALY further underlined her extraordinary talent by storming to 3,000 metres gold at the U18 European Athletics Championships in Hungary this evening.
The 17-year-old has been in brilliant form in recent weeks and blitzed the rest of the field over the final kilometre in Gyor to clock a new championship and Irish youth record of 9:18.05.
She becomes the third Irish athlete to medal at the U18 European championships, following Gina Akpe-Moses’ silver in the 100m and Molly Scott’s bronze in the 100m hurdles two years ago.
“It feels amazing,” she smiled afterwards.
The Holy Child Killiney student was happy to sit in the pack during the early laps before moving through the gears, clocking a blistering 2:57 in the final kilometre to win by some distance.
Healy has broken a host of records over multiple distances this season, most recently setting a new Irish youth and U20 record over 800m in Belfast.
After easing through this morning’s semi-final, Healy will run in the final of the 1,500m — considered to be her main event — on Sunday bidding to complete a glorious double.
It's gold for Ireland in the 3000m!
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) July 6, 2018
Sarah Healy produced a final kilometre of 2:57 to win the 3000m title at the European U18 Championships in a championship record of 9:18.05. pic.twitter.com/KvbJX22X4E
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Great news. Well done.
This girl is the real deal well done.
Well done x
Was watching Sarah, she blew the field away, great prospect for olympics
We have the talent congrats Sarah ☆☆☆☆☆
thats some winning margin in a major competition. Fantastic race. Well done
The competition was blown away!!! This girls got a great future! Go Sarah!
Good woman!
Well done young lady, great to hear news like this..
Great race, watched in on Eurosport. She was comfortable all the way around. Well done!
COYGIG!!!
Fab performance, well done.
RTE DIDNT even mention it on there news. She is the real deal. Come on Sunday for the double. It’s on Eurosport
@Martin Sinnott: I’ll be tuning in. Best of luck Sarah!
Congratulations Sarah; superb gold
Great stuff.
Superb to see an Irish athlete competing and dominating in such an event, and breaking records into the bargain. Well done to her, her family, coaches, etc. They all play a part in such successes.
My only concern for her might be having to run in hot temperatures. It looks like the weather there suited her, given our poor Irish disposition towards heat! I hope she proves me wrong, regularly, if she keeps competing.