Tallaght athletes display talent at European Championships

TALLAGHT Athletes Dubem Amah and Cormac Dixon displayed their talents at the European U20 Championships that were held in Tampere, Finland, reports Michael Howley.

Indeed, Amah who is still only 17 and eligible to compete at the next championships in two years’ time displayed his talents when clocking a new personal best time of 21.30 seconds in the semi-finals of the 200m and only missed out by 00.01 of a second for the final.

However, due to a late withdrawal of another other athlete due to injury, he was awarded a place in the final where he ran bravely from lane 1 to finish 7th with a time of 21.76.

Cormac Dixon also made the final of the 3000m after he qualified comfortably in 5th place in his semi-final last Thursday, and despite his brave efforts in a very slow tactically run final that didn’t suit his race strategy on Saturday, he had to settle for 9th place in a time of 8:48.27.

Uche Disu, who was called up late last Wednesday evening was a member of the 4X100m relay squad that finished 8th in the final.

Overall, these were very pleasing performances for these emerging young talented athletes who will benefit and gain from the experience of competing and being involved in high level international competitions.

From Lucan Harriers was Saoirse FitzGerald who raced in the 800m category.

Unfortunately it was not her day as Saoirse finished 7th in her heat with a time of 2:09.84.

FitzGerald was unable to improve on her season best which was a time of 2:06.63.

If she had produced this time or even slightly improved she would have gotten at least sixth place in the overall final,  All athletes have off days but she should take comfort in knowing that she certainly has the ability and talent to compete on the European stage.