Britton’s 5000m Olympic Standard

Fionnuala Britton has achieved her third Olympic standard after finishing sixth in the 5,000m in a time of 15:15.69 in Rabat, Morocco last night.

The Kilcoole AC athlete’s time cut almost six seconds off her previous best of 15:21.45, achieved in a mixed race last year.

Britton now has Olympic standards for 5,000m, 10,000m and 3,000m steeplechase.

Mark English (Letterkenny) has put in a truly top class performance running 1.45.77 to win the 800m at the IFAM meet tonight in Belgium, a new Irish Junior Record. This time improves on his personal best and Irish record of 1.47.09 that he set last year. With this run the 19 year old has also achieved the A standard for the European Track and Field Championships and for the World Juniors, it is also notably very close to the A Olympic Standard of 1:45.60. It also moves him to fifth in the all-time list, moving Marcus O’Sullivan (1.45.87) to sixth.

At the same meet Jessie Barr (Ferrybank AC) finished second in the 400m Hurdles in a personal best of 56.16, well inside the European Standard of 57.10 and edging closer to the A Olympic Standard of 55.50.

Also in action was Ciara Mageean (UCD AC), who ran 4:13.10 to place eight in the 1500m. This was a seasonal best performance by Mageean, who is targeting the Olympic A standard of 4:06.00