Patience Jumbo-Gula breaks European U18 100m championship record

Sprinter wins semi-final in 11.59 seconds; Sophie O’Sullivan wins 800m heat

Ireland’s Sophie O’Sullivan on her way to finishing first in her heat of the European Under-18 Athletics Championships at Gyor in Hungary. Photograph: Sasa Pahic Szabo/Inpho
Ireland’s Sophie O’Sullivan on her way to finishing first in her heat of the European Under-18 Athletics Championships at Gyor in Hungary. Photograph: Sasa Pahic Szabo/Inpho

Patience Jumbo-Gula highlighted an excellent evening session for Irish athletes at the European Under-18 Athletics Championships with a championship record in the girls' 100m of 11.59 seconds in Gyor, Hungary.

The St Gerard’s Dundalk sprinter got an excellent start in her semi-final with the wind reading +0.7m/s and runs in Friday’s final at 7:09pm Irish time.

Earlier Sophie O'Sullivan (Ballymore, Cobh), a daughter of former world champion Sonia, produced a strong run to win her heat of the 800m in 2:12.23 to advance to Friday's semi-final. Molly Brown (MSB) just missed out after an opening lap of 72 seconds in the first heat and finished fourth in 2:16.94.

Sophie Meredith (St Mary's Limerick) and Ruby Millet (St Abban's) finished 15th and 17th overall in the long jump qualification with respective bests of 5.79m and 5.63m.

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There was some misfortune in both the 1,500m and 100m for the boys. Cian McPhillips (Longford) was placed well in a tactical affair in Heat 1 of the 1,500m but lost a spike after two laps, resulting in a 14th place finish in 4:10.84.

Brian Maguire (DSD) battled well in Heat 2 of the 1,500m, finishing 10th in 3:59.74.

Conor Morey (Leevale) went in Semi-Final 1 of the 100m where there was a false start but a late recall gun saw him and some of the others run the full race. It was subsequently rerun 10 minutes later where he came sixth in 11.17 – evidently tired having two 100m races in quick succession.

Israel Olatunde (Dundealgan) finished fifth in the second semi-final in 11.09 seconds.