Barr has easy win in 400m hurdles at Irish Life Games

Neville, Akpe-Moses, Scott and Adeleke set new national junior record in 4x100m relay

Thomas Barr won the 400m hurdles at the Irish Life Health AAI Games in Morton Stadium, Santry, Dublin. Photograph: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
Thomas Barr won the 400m hurdles at the Irish Life Health AAI Games in Morton Stadium, Santry, Dublin. Photograph: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

Thomas Barr opened his outdoor season with an easy win in the 400m hurdles at the Irish Life Health AAI Games in Morton Stadium, clocking a casual 51.23 seconds.

Phil Healy also completed another excellent double in the 100m and 200m, though wind aided both her 11.34 (+2.5) and 23.09 (+3.0). It seems only a matter of time and favourable wind conditions before both records fall (11.40 for the 100m and 23.02 for the 200m). Her sister Joan set a best of 11.57 (+1.2) in the second race.

Ciara Mageean also won the 1,500m at the British Milers Club in Watford in 4:09.10.

At the IFAM meeting in Oordegem, Belgium, the quartet of Ciara Neville (Emerald), Gina Akpe-Moses (Blackrock-Louth), Molly Scott (Carlow) and Rhasidat Adeleke (Tallaght) set a new national junior record of 44.15 seconds for the 4x100m relay, which also put them number three on the senior all-time list.

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Sarah Healy from Blackrock also broke the Irish youth 1500m record with a time of 4:13.32 and will be a strong contender at the European U18 Championships in Gyor, Hungary in July. Rhasidat Adeleke (Tallaght) ran 23.94 while Miriam Daly (Carrick on Suir) 61.88 in the 400m hurdles – both European U18 standards.

Ian O'Riordan

Ian O'Riordan

Ian O'Riordan is an Irish Times sports journalist writing on athletics