Sarah Healy wins 1,500m at Diamond League in Rome
Sarah Healy
produced a magnificent finishing kick to win the 1,500 metres at the Rome Diamond League meeting on Friday night.
Just like she did in winning the European Indoor title over 3,000m last March, Healy bided her time over the last 150 metres, holding third coming into the homestretch behind leader Susan Ejore from Kenya, and Australia's Sarah Billings.
Just when Billings moved in front and looked poised for victory, Healy came again and took the win in 3:59.17, a rare Irish victory on the Diamond League stage inside the Stadio Olimpico. Billings held on for second in 3:59.24, with fellow Australian Abbey Caldwell coming through for third in 3:59.32.
It was Healy's first outdoor 1,500m race this season, the 24-year-old already improving her 3,000m best to 8:27.02 in finishing third in the Rabat Diamond League 10 days ago.
READ MORE
In a stacked field of 15 women, 13 of which had run sub-4:00, Healy again showed her growing confidence since her indoor success in March, which she followed with a sixth-place finish in the World Indoors.
She will race the 1,500m again in Paris on June 20th. Her best stands at 3:57.46, run at the Paris Diamond League last July, which looks under threat, as does Ciara Mageean's Irish record of 3:55.87, clocked in Brussels in 2023.
Cathal Doyle ran a lifetime best of 3:32.15 in the men's 1,500m earlier in the night, although that left him back in 14th place, where the 16 finishers all ran sub-3:33. Victory went to Azeddine Habz from France, in a season best of 3:29.72, ahead of Kenya's 2019 World champion Cheruiyot Timothy, who clocked 3:39.75.
It took a full second off Doyle's previous best of 3:33.15 set last year, the Dublin athlete moving closer to qualification for the World Championships in Tokyo in September.
Kenya's Beatrice Chebet, the double Olympic champion from Paris last summer, produced another stellar run to clock the second fastest 5,000m time in history with her 14:03.69, just two and half seconds outside the world record.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Irish Sun
21 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
Sarah Healy clocks personal best 1500m time at Diamond League event while Mark English also wows in 800m
SARAH HEALY clocked a personal best in the women's 1500m in the Diamond League. The Dubliner, 24, produced a fine finish to come second to Nelly Chepchirchir at the Paris meet, recording a time of 3:57.15 to close in on Ciara Magean's Irish record of 3:55.87. 2 The Dubliner continues to be in excellent form Credit: Shutterstock Editorial 2 As is Mark English of Donegal A flying outdoor season has already seen Healy post her 3000m PB in Rabat and win the 1500m in Rome thanks to a magnificent final lap. Earlier in Paris, Mark English set the second-fastest time of his career in the men's 800m. The European bronze medallist clocked 1:43.98 to come home sixth in a race won by Spain's Mohamed Attaoui in a time of 1:42.73. Usain Bolt names world record holder among three stars he was gutted not to race against
Irish Times
a day ago
- Irish Times
Jack Conan: ‘Any season where you win something can never be deemed a failure'
It's been a whirlwind week for Jack Conan and the Leinster contingent in the British & Irish Lions squad. Their URC title-winning celebrations carried on into Sunday whereupon they were packing their bags and linking up with the rest of the squad on Monday, albeit the Lions had helpfully come to Dublin for the week. Jack Conan was among the 10 Leinster players obliged to take something of a back seat before watching last night's tour warm-up against Argentina in the Aviva Stadium. This day last week, after Conan captained Leinster to a 32-7 win over the Bulls, already feels like an age ago. 'It was a bit weird in the changing room after,' reflected Conan, 'like we didn't know how to win. Lads were a bit awkward or something like that, but it was good craic. 'We went to the RDS for a bit which was good, and then just pottered into town, and everyone did their own thing.' READ MORE The debate rages as to whether Leinster's season can be deemed a success or failure, and Conan gave a balanced perspective on this conundrum. 'I think any season where you win something can never be deemed a failure. Obviously, we want to go well in both competitions, and I think if it hadn't been for the performance against Northampton, even if we had lost that game, but we performed really well, I don't think people would have said much about it. Lions Jack Conan. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho 'They're a quality side, but I think it was just the way we didn't show up that day, and had a bit of a hangover for a few weeks. Maybe we don't get the result over the last two weeks, if it wasn't for that game. Maybe it was the bit of a kick that we needed. 'The problem is when you win most of the time, it papers over cracks a little bit, so we had to have a good hard look at ourselves and it was tough for a lot of lads, for everyone in the building. But you get to win a trophy at Croke Park with all your mates, at the end of the day, I would have taken then. 'I definitely wouldn't say it was a failure, but there's definitely some more in this club and more in the lads, so hopefully there'll be a few years still ahead of us.' At least the squad also had Sunday together to continue their celebrations in their last day together as a group given departures and retirements. With age comes wisdom, and Conan was home 'early' on Sunday night ahead of hooking with the Lions. 'I felt fresh enough on Monday morning. I had to go down to Bray at 7 o'clock in the morning to get the dog,' he said. 'The afterglow went pretty quickly on Monday morning when you had to pack up for the next eight weeks of your life, and get organised and do everything else and get into camp. The anxiety was pretty high, like first day of school going in. The lads had the time together, so you feel you're behind the eight-ball a bit, so you're on catch-up.' Leinster's Jack Conan is presented with the URC trophy. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho He'd love to have been playing last night but instead was with Andrew Porter, Joe McCarthy, Jamison Gibson-Park and Hugo Keenan, as well as the Bath duo of Will Stuart and Finn Russell and the Leicester pair of Ollie Chessum and Jack van Poortvliet in the UCD Bowl hosting a training session for 90 girls and boys ranging from eight to 12 years. The four primary schools nominated by the Irish provinces were Moorefields Primary School, Ballymena, Antrim (Ulster), St Columba's National School, North Strand, Dublin (Leinster), Clerihan National School, Clonmel, Tipperary (Munster) and St Brendan's National School, Eyrecourt, Galway (Connacht). Conan described last Tuesday's first proper training session as 'soul-searching stuff – we had to run out the demons.' He's been rooming with Jac Morgan. 'Great fella, nice bloke, so getting to know him. I need subtitles half the time, it's a strong Welsh accent.' Conan seemed very relaxed and happy in his new environment. The benefit of being a Lions standing to him, even if the contrast with that pandemic-afflicted tour could hardly be starker. 'Four years ago was still great. I loved it and had a great experience. In a way, you get to know the lads in such a different way because it was eight weeks of solitary confinement. You have to mix. You still have to mix now but you're getting out and about in smaller groups whereas four years ago, everyone was just kind of sitting around.' Last night's full house at the Aviva accentuated the disappointment of not playing, especially as the warm-up game against Japan four years had a restricted 16,500 attendance in Murrayfield before the tour games in South Africa were played behind closed doors. 'I can't wait to get over there,' admitted Conan ahead of their Saturday morning departure and long haul to Perth. 'Everyone says it's just a different fanfare, a different level of excitement when you get properly on tour. But you can even see it walking around town at the moment; people in jerseys, there's a pop-up shop, so many kids outside the Shelbourne. It's special and I'm looking forward to getting a proper run-out at some stage.' Four years on, Conan also has a better idea of what to expect too. 'It's going to be the biggest game of their careers when you're playing the club sides. The Western Force are going to be unbelievably up for it. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for those blokes to play against the Lions. 'I know they might be missing a host of international stars but they're going to be unbelievably excited, so we know we'll have to be at our best. Every time you get an opportunity to put on this jersey it's only a very short amount of time you get to wear it you've got to make the most of it yourself and leave it in a better place. 'You've got to take those opportunities and run with it, and hopefully I'll get that opportunity next Saturday.'
Irish Times
a day ago
- Irish Times
Ian O'Riordan: Why the record-breaking heights of Mondo Duplantis are truly out of this world
Somewhere, in the broken fragments of memory, there is a giant of a man throwing an unidentified object into the sky. Then, without warning, it comes crashing down into the black cinder infield, prompting a long 'whoa' from the crowd and a crackle from the old PA. 'Yuriy Sedykh … new world record!' There must be something indelible about witnessing your first world record, live and in person, as a 12-year-old. Even when it's in the field, not on the track. Like All-Ireland finals and Bob Dylan gigs, I've lost count of the number witnessed since, but that first sighting of Yuriy Sedykh in the hammer will always stand out. It was July 1984, down at Cork City Sports next to the Lee, and we were brought along by our dad on the strict condition we do not shout names at the runners. We didn't know a single thing about hammer throwing, or even care, but quickly realised that breaking a world record must be something extraordinary. READ MORE Yuri Sedykh, the Russian Olympic hammer throwing champion. Photograph: Fairfax Media Archives Sedykh may be a relic now of the old Soviet Union, but he is still remembered as the best at his event, with ample evidence of that in my essential handbook that is the Progression of World Athletics Records. Olympic champion in 1976 and 1990, he broke the hammer world record six times during his career, throwing 84.34m that evening in Cork . Some of the local Cork crowd would have understood perfectly what they were witnessing. Dr Pat O'Callaghan from Kanturk, Olympic hammer champion in 1928 and 1932 , broke the world record in 1937, throwing 59.56m in nearby Fermoy. Plenty more Irish hammer throwers, unable to represent their home country, did likewise, including John Flanagan, Matt McGrath, James Mitchel, and not forgetting Maurice Davin, the co-founder of the GAA , who threw a world record of 30.12m in 1881. Sedykh later extended his hammer world record to 86.74m, winning the 1986 European title in Stuttgart, and 39 years later that record still stands. His record-breaking spree was aided by fierce competition from fellow Soviet thrower Sergey Litvinov, but as time has passed, more questions have been raised about the legitimacy of those marks. Sedykh died in France in 2021, aged 66, and always denied allegations of doping. However, Russian doping whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov, in his 2020 book The Rodchenkov Affair, claimed that Sedykh was taking steroids, and most of his competitors were too. Sweden's Armand Duplantis poses after setting a new world record of 6.28m in the men's pole vault event. Photograph: TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images Despite being treated to several world records in all the years since, and some more believable than others, few athletes have come close to rivalling the actual feat of the last world record I witnessed live and in person: the pole vault height of 6.25m that Swedish superstar Mondo Duplantis cleared to win the Olympic gold medal in Paris last August. The original Olympic motto of Citius, Altius, Fortius was first adopted in the main at the 1924 Olympics in Paris, and in the century since, few athletes have perfected the higher part better than Duplantis. He's broken that record height again three times since Paris, clearing 6.26m at the Silesia Diamond League in Poland just three weeks later, then clearing 6.27m at the Clermont-Ferrand indoor meeting in France in February. Then last Sunday at the Stockholm Diamond League, inside the old 1912 Olympic Stadium, Duplantis cleared 6.28m at his first attempt, making it world record number 12 for the 25-year-old, with the obvious promise of more to come. Armand Duplantis of Team Sweden jumping 6.28 to set a new world record. Photograph:'There's not much between me and 6.30m, technically, I'm just a perfect day away from it,' Duplantis said. 'The first time I jumped in this stadium when I was 11 years old, it was rainy and cold, and I jumped right under four metres – quite high for how young I was.' Crucially, Duplantis passed the first rule of being successful in any sport: choosing your parents wisely. His father Greg won several US pole vault titles, with a best of 5.80m, and his mother Helena, from Sweden, was a top heptathlete and volleyball player. They met while attending Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Born in Lafayette, Duplantis chose to represent Sweden from an early age. Although showing equal promise in baseball, and recently championing the benefits of playing multi-sports as a youngster, he soon concentrated solely on the pole vault, coached by his father and mother, who set up a practice runway and mat at their home. He started clearing age group world bests every year between the ages of seven and 12, most of which still stand. In 2015, at 16, he cleared 5.30m to win the World Under-18 title in Colombia, and then in 2020, cleared 6.17m to break his first world record, improving the mark held since 2014 by one of his idols, Renaud Lavillenie from France. Armand Duplantis of Team Sweden jumping 6.28 to set a new world record. Photograph:He's won two Olympic titles since, five World titles, between indoors and out, plus four European titles. In April, he was named Laureus World Sportsman of the Year, after four previous nominations − just the second track or field athlete to land that honour after four-time winner Usain Bolt. Such is his perfect combination of strength, speed and agility, Duplantis can use longer, stiffer poles designed for heavier vaulters. He explained the benefits of that to the New York Times, saying the catapult effect it creates is like 'a pea on a plastic spoon that's shooting across a cafeteria'. As for his coolness on the run-up, and his ability to make the ridiculously hard appear so utterly sublime, he said: 'I take a deep breath, think about what I'm going to do… and then I go and do it.' Looking back through the Progression of World Athletics Records, few athletes have ever matched the rate of Duplantis, in any event. What sets him apart, however, is that there is no reason whatsoever to doubt his progression, that he is truly extraordinary, and that witnessing his world records will never grow old.
