ATHLETICS - European Championships: James Nolan left us with that horrible sinking feeling inside the Ullevi Stadium last night. Then Liam Reale came to the rescue.
The semi-finals of the 1,500 metres, highly unpredictable at the best of times, were turned upside down from an Irish point of view. Nolan finishing at the wrong end of his race, only for Reale - running in his first major championship - to battle his way into tomorrow's final.
It wasn't supposed to be like this. At 29, and ranked fourth-fastest in his heat, Nolan was gunning for a place in the final, but that all fell apart over the last 200 metres when he dropped from second to 14th. There was lots of barging, and the Irish management briefly considered a protest, reckoning the Ukrainian Ivan Heshko had impeded Nolan.
Nolan, rightly, decided not to appeal. Tactically he had done all he should, holding third place at the bell and moving on to the shoulder of Spain's Arturo Casado at the bottom of the back stretch.
That's as close as he got. The rest of the field filed past him in the burn-up, and with the Briton Michael East falling, Nolan effectively finished last.
The only positive thing was the time: Heshko clocked a pedestrian 3:47.12, giving those running the second semi-final a clear advantage. Along with the first four from each semi-final, the four fastest losers would also progress, and that helped Reale.
Like Nolan, he ran smart, third at the bell, but unlike Nolan he had the strength to hold on. He ended up eighth in 3:41.97, last man to go through.
It was more than the Limerickman hoped for; he is only 23 and just coming off a US scholarship.
"My goal at the start of the season was just to make these championships," he said, "and now I'm in the final. I'm overawed with that. I'd bombed out in the heats of the European under-23s last year. I sat down after that and decided I had to train harder. I didn't feel particularly good out there, but I dug deep, and thankfully I held on. But once I came into the arena I was ready to give it my best shot."
Defending champion Mehdi Baala of France won in 3:39.74, but Reale - a first cousin of the Limerick hurler Damien Reale - will now mix it with the leading dozen metric milers in Europe.
The night concluded with the women's 10,000 metres final, the gold medal going to the little-known Russian Inga Abitova, who kicked home in 30:31.42, a long way ahead of Ireland's Marie Davenport, who was 22nd in 33:05.48.
Earlier, Eileen O'Keeffe and Michelle Carey fell short of their seasonal bests in failing to qualify: O'Keeffe threw 65.07 metres in the hammer, leaving her 10th in her group; Carey managed fifth in her 400-metre hurdles heat, clocking 57.61.
