Ireland’s Phil Healy bowed out of the Women’s 400-metre event at the semi-final stage at the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham.
Having made history by booking her place in the semi-final as one of the sixth fastest runners-up in the heats, Healy was unable to overcome a tricky lane one draw and finished in third place.
The 23-year-old sprinter was quickest off the blocks but could not build on that strong start, leaving herself with too much to do in the second 200m and finished in a time of 53.26, half a second slower than her heat time of 52.75.
Healy was fourth at the halfway stage and was unable to rein in the trio ahead of her, although Greece’s Maria Belimpasaki, who crossed the finish line in second place, was disqualified, bumping Healy up to third in the last of the three semi-finals and 12th overall.
Elsewhere in the evening session, Ciara Mageean failed to progress from her 1500-metre heat.
With two qualifying automatically from her heat along with the three other fastest times across the three heats, Mageean was well off the pace and finished in 7th place.
Her time of 4:11.81 was almost six seconds behind heat winner Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands and well behind both her season’s and personal best.
"I’m disappointed but I know I’m running better than that," the county Down runner said afterwards.
Phil Healy will be next out on track for Ireland as she goes in the 400m semi-final, qualifying from the heats as one of the fastest qualifiers in a time of 52.18.
In the morning’s session today, both Ciara Neville and Amy Foster were involved in the 60m heats.
Irish junior record holder Neville posted a time of 7.47 to finish in 37th place overall, while new Irish record holder Foster finished nine placed ahead of her team-mate following the conclusion of the heats after a time of 7.35.
