European u/18 T&F Championships 2022 (4th/7th July)

Andrew Glennon, Diarmuid Fagan & Aisling Lane at the European u/18 T&F in Jerusalem

Tortuous journey to Jerusalem for Euro u/18 T&F

Getting to the start line in Jerusalem for the European Under 18 T&F Championships proved a real Crusade for the Irish team. Their flight from Dublin was delayed, resulting in the team being diverted from Switzerland to Turkey, and they eventually arrived into Tel Aviv more than a day late with precious preparation time lost, along with all of their luggage. The lost luggage included all the valuable materials needed to deal with and counteract the intense arid heat of the Middle East, a far from ideal start for the team.

First in action was Diarmuid Fagan in the 1,500m heats on Monday evening 4th July in very warm conditions. With only four from each of the two heats qualifying automatically to the final, along with the next four fastest non-automatic qualifiers, securing a place in the final was very tough, but running in the second heat Diarmuid knew what had to be done. Keeping in the top four places to the halfway mark, Diarmuid was full of running. As the pace surged, Diarmuid drifted back to sixth by the bell but was still running strongly. However, despite giving himself every chance, it wasn’t to be and he finished in eighth place, an excellent finish in his first Major Championship, only two places off qualification and he can be very proud of his performance at this level.

With an early start on Thursday morning 7th July, Andrew Glennon bravely faced the starters gun for the 10k race walk as the thermometer crept upwards. Andrew stayed on pace until after the halfway mark and then with determined focus kept fighting to finish an excellent fourteenth place overall. An example of the heat intensity is that his Irish team mate collapsed on the track with heat exhaustion before the 3km mark.

Not long after Andrew finished, Aisling Lane took on the challenge of dealing with the red track and a thermometer edging further and further into the red for the 5k race walk. Under the circumstances Aisling had the prudence to revise her race plans and put the focus on primarily getting to the finish line. With the necessity of moving out to lane 6 on every single lap to take on the limited supply of water provided, Aisling kept to her task and achieved her goal of finishing a major underage championship, even managing to beat other athletes more used to such hot conditions. Afterwards, a cold shower and cool ice-cream were soon relished with religious pleasure! Well done Andrew and Aisling.