Irish athletes shine at scintillating AIT Grand Prix

Irish athletics stars were to the fore last night with Phil Healy, the star of the show, breaking a 17-year-old national record at a well-attended AIT Grand Prix.

The atmosphere was electric at what is one of the highlights of the local sporting calendar and an event with growing international prestige within athletics circles. 

Healy ran a lightning fast time of 23:10 in the Hodson Bay Group Women’s 200m- the quickest time by a European athlete this season. In doing so, she broke an Irish record of 23:17 held by Ciara Sheehy.

There was also personal bests for Ciara Mageean and Thomas Barr, two of Ireland's most high profile athletes.

Mageean was attempting to break another long-standing national record, set by Mary Cullen in 2009.

A scintillating final 350 metres by the 2019 European Indoor medallist from Portaferry saw her finish in a time of 8:48:27 chalking almost seven seconds off her personal best.

Irish favourite Thomas Barr, a specialist 400m hurdler, faced a tough 400m flat race against three time World and European Indoor champion Pavel Maslak (CZE) and last year’s winner and Euro Indoor Championship bronze medallist Tony Van Diepen (NED).

Maslak started strong until the last bend when Van Diepen came up from the outside to clinch first place with a time of 46:17. In his first outing of the season, Barr pushed hard on the last bend of the Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands Men’s 400m finishing third with a time of 46:44 – a personal best – which bodes well for his first race in an Olympic year.

Current 1500m World Indoor champion Samuel Tefera from Ethiopia was billed as attempting to break the World Indoor Mile Record. However, the record was never really in reach from the opening laps but he still led the race taking home first in the AIT Men’s Mile with a time of 3:55:86, over eight seconds outside the target.