Updated at 14.24
IRELAND’S SARAH Healy has finished sixth in the 3000m final at the World Indoor Championships.
The 2024 Olympian registered a time of 8.40.00.
Freweyni Hailu of Ethiopia took gold with a time of 8:37.21, while USA’s Shelby Houlihan ((8:38.26) and Jessica Hull of Australia (8:38.28) won silver and bronze respectively.
In the men’s event, Andrew Coscoran was sixth with a time of 7.48.53.
In the same race, James Gormley was 13th (7.56.43).
“It was a pretty solid race from me,” Healy said afterwards. “I put myself in the right position from the start. I expected the race to be faster than it was, it ended up being slow with a big wind-up towards the end.
“I was happy with my positioning through the first 2km and put myself right in it. When the big move was made at three laps to go, I was a little too far back and had a lot to make up.
“I think sixth is a pretty solid result for me and I’m pretty happy with it, but it does leave me hungry for more”.
Coscoran added: “I think it was a positive run. I’m going to be a little bit disappointed that I didn’t come top three, but it’s a run in the right direction and I can’t be disappointed with sixth in the world.
“I ran a nice aggressive race and put myself in a good position. With a couple of laps to go, when Kemboi came around me, maybe I could have been more aggressive in holding him off, but it’s a split-second decision in the race and that maybe was the undoing of me.
“A little bit of fine-tuning and I think we’re heading to a really good place. I’m up being competitive in a world indoor final so I can’t be disappointed. We’ll move on positively from here to the next championships.”
Sarah Lavin is the next Irish athlete in action. She competes in the 60m hurdles on Sunday (2.25am Irish time), with the semi-finals and final of the event due to take place at 11.35am and 1.01pm.
The Emerald AC star will be hoping to build on last year’s event in Glasgow, when she finished fifth.
Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen won the men’s 3000m race in Nanjing, China to keep his quest for double gold on track.
Ingebrigtsen clocked 7min 46.09sec for victory in a thrilling race at Nanjing’s Cube.
Ethiopian Berihu Aregawi, who won 10,000m silver at last year’s Paris Olympics, claimed silver in 7:46.25, with Australian Ky Robinson taking bronze (7:47.09).
Ingebrigtsen will now turn his attention to his favoured 1,500m on Sunday in a bid to emulate Ethiopian legend Haile Gebrselassie, who achieved the 1,500/3,000m double in Maebashi, Japan, in 1999.
A double Olympic champion and two-time world champion over 5,000m, Ingebrigtsen came into the competition on the back of victories in the 1,500 and 3,000m at the European indoor championships in Apeldoorn.
But, remarkably, a world indoor title had eluded the 24-year-old until he predictably took Saturday’s race by the scruff of the neck.
In his last outing at a world indoors, Ingebrigtsen finished second in the 1,500m to Ethiopian Samuel Tefera in Belgrade in 2022. He then missed Glasgow last year with an achilles heel injury.
Ingebrigtsen, as his wont, was happy to sit at the back of the 14-strong pack as German’s Sam Parsons took up the running in Nanjing, splitting the pack into single file.
The Norwegian didn’t linger long after Parsons’ surge, shifting gears to move up through the field to take the lead with 11 laps to go.
Placing himself at the front, free of any potential problem with mid-pack traffic, Ingebrigtsen ceded to the Ethiopian duo of Biniam Mehary and Getnet Wale.
Coscoran took the pack through with seven laps to run, Ingebrigtsen sat in fourth.
Kenya’s Cornelius Kemboi surged through and suddenly Ingebrigtsen found himself somewhat boxed in in sixth.
With 600m to run, the Norwegian made his move, going wide to get clear and sit in Aregawi’s shadow.
Shoulder-to-shoulder, the pair went through the bell together, just a 200m sprint ahead of them to the finish line.
Aregawi looked like he had it, but the Norwegian was on the Ethiopian’s coattails and bade his time brilliantly until the back straight, launching a perfectly-timed final attack for a first world indoor gold.
Additional reporting by AFP
6th in the world in an individual sport is phenomenal going. Exciting times for Irish athletics.
Good to see Healy easily beat Garcia and consolidate her position as European number 1 at indoors level. I think she can keep improving and will have learned a lot from this. She is clearly and incredibly talented athlete.
Great run by Coscoran in a strange and tactical race. Out running two Ethiopian runners in the last 150m can only be good for his confidence. Only the superstar that is Ingebrigtsen was the only European to finish ahead of him.