Hession secures place in 200m final

Paul Hession has secured a place in the final of the Men's 200 metres at the European Athletics Championships.

Hesson finished fourth in his semi-final, which was won by Jaysuma Saidy Ndure in 20.50 seconds, and that meant he faced an anxious wait before his place in the main event was confirmed.

Running in lane five, the Athenry man needed to be in the first three to guarantee his place but he was pipped in the final 20 metres by France's Martial Mbandjock.

Hession looked to have done enough coming round the bend but Mbandjock's late surge from lane seven denied him an automatic place as he finished fourth.

Marlon Devonish of Great Britain finished second in the semi-final 20.55.

Hession's time of 20.67 looked competitive but he needed the fourth and fifth placed finishers in the second semi-final to be slower in order to take a place in the final.

In the end, French sprint star Christophe Lemaitre won the second semif-final in a time of 20.29 seconds with Christian Malcolm of Great Britain second in 20.58 and France's David Alerte third in 20.59.

Sweden's Johan Wissman of Sweden was fourth in 20.77 seconds, and that meant Hession had secured his place in the final.

The Championship race will take place on Friday evening and Hession is emphasising the positives.

He said: 'I felt good warming up, we had torrential rain which didn't help but it's the same for everybody so that's no excuse.

'If my last 50m was better then I would have been third, but it's fine, at least I qualified.'

Hession, who has a best this season of 20.46secs, was handed lane two for the final tomorrow evening.

He added: 'I ran an Irish record from lane two.'

Leevale AC sprinter Ailis McSweeney missed out on a place in the Women's 100m final. In the end, just .01 of a second separated her from a place in the final.

The DCU law student got off to a flying start in the second semi-final but she was pegged back over the closing 50 metres.

She dipped well to finish finish in a very quick 11.32 - though a following wind of +2.2 metres meant that the time is illegal.

In the end, McSweeney just missed out on a fastest loser spot in the final with 11.31 seconds proving good enough.

Ireland's David McCarthy also missed on a place in the final of his event, the Men's 800 metres.

McCarthy finished 6th in his heat in a time of 1:49:14. The heat was was won by gold medal favourite Michael Rimmer of Great Britain in a time of 1:47:67.