Teenager Sarah Healy continued her recent brilliant performances on Saturday, the 17-year-old running the fastest women's youth time over 1,500 metres by any European in the last 32 years.
Healy clocked 4:09.25 at a senior race in Tübingen in Germany, improving her own Irish youth under-18 record of 4:13.32, set in Belgium last month – and moving the Blackrock AC athlete to number two on the European all-time youth list behind the 4:06.02 set by Romania's Ana Padurean back in 1986.
Earlier this month, running for her school Holy Child, Killiney, she also improved the senior girls schools 1,500m record to 4:18.32, bettering Ciara Mageean’s previous record of 4:19.00, set in 2009.
It also leaves her closing in fast on the Irish Junior (under-19 record) of 4:07.45, set by Mageean back in 2011. At the same meeting in Tübingen, Mageean produced her best performance for almost a year, running 4:06.70 to finish fourth; Healy was 11th.
For Healy, who won European Youth Olympic gold last year, the big target of the summer are the World Junior Championships next month in Tampere, Finland. It’s also a qualifying time for the senior European Championships in Berlin in August.
