A taste perhaps of the next generation, and in more ways than one, saw John Fitzsimons produce the standout run of the Irish athletes competing at the celebrated Golden Spike meeting in Ostrava, Czech Republic - the fourth stop on the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold series.
Lining up in the 800 metres alongside Mark English, the Irish senior record holder looking to further progress his qualification for the Tokyo Olympics, Fitzsimons ran a more balanced race to finish seventh, the 23 year-old from Kildare improving his personal best to 1:46.62, the 10th fastest on the Irish all-time list.
Unquestionably the standout runner in that race was British teenager Max Burgin, who on the day before his 19th birthday took the win in 1:44.14, a new European under-20 record. Burgin was the only runner in the field to go with the pacemaker and displayed strength throughout while English, who was leading the chasing pack the bell and still in close contention around the final bend, faded to 10th, clocking 1:47.85.
The women’s race was won by another British teenager Keely Hodgkinson, still only 19, who took the win in a brilliant 1:58.89. With the race passing halfway in 58.17, Nadia Power found that sort a pace hard going and finished sixth in 2:02:72, short of her outdoor best of 2:01.01, the look of disappointment telling all, although she is like English still progressing towards Tokyo qualification. She is currently 41st on the Road to Tokyo world rankings list (with 48 places available in the 800m) with English sitting at 33rd.
Another emerging talent, Luke McCann, also looked the part in the men’s 1,500m despite it being his first taste of this level of competition. The pace here was also fast, Marcin Lewandowski from Poland displaying all his usual coolness and experience to take the win in 3:35.57.
Conservative
For McCann, running in the colours of UCD AC and like Power now coached by Enda Fitzpatrick, the tactic of running a slightly more balanced and conservative race also paid off, as he finished strongly to take 10th place in 3:37.77, knocking almost three full seconds off his previous best of 3:41.70.
Paul Robinson had also made the trip to Ostrava looking to improve on his 1,500m best of 3:35.22, which he ran back in 2013, only to injure his Achilles tendon in the warm-up which forced him to withdraw. After progressing to make the European Indoor final in March, Robinson was also eying a Tokyo spot, although it remains to be seen how long the injury will set him back.
Seán Tobin rounded up the Irish interest when he lined up in the 3,000m, the race billed as Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei attempt on Daniel Komen’s world record of 7:20.67, which has stood for 25 years.
Cheptegei did give it a fair go, only to fade on the last lap, finishing in 7:33.24, while Tobin closed with typical gusto to nail fourth place, running a season best of 7:49.37. He will next race the 5,000m in the Diamond League in Gateshead on Sunday before another 5,000m in Gothenburg on June 2nd, again with Tokyo qualification still a runner.
