Healy qualifies for Europeans

PHIL Healy has qualified for the 60m at the European Indoor Athletics Championships in Belgrade in March.

The Bandon AC sprinter ran inside the European indoor 60m qualifying time twice at the National Indoor League meeting at Athlone IT on Saturday, clocking 7.40 and 7.36, with the latter only one hundredth of a second off her personal best.

Healy’s 7.36 was also only six hundredths of a second away from the national record, with her form at this early stage of the indoor season very encouraging.

This was also her quickest ever opening race to an indoor season, with 7.45 her fastest opening time in previous seasons.

She also plans to try and qualify for the 400m at the European senior indoor championships as she continues her transition from her more accustomed sprint distances of 60m, 100m and 200m to the 400m.

‘Qualifying for the 400m is definitely in the plan,’ Healy said.

‘Compared to the 400m outdoors, the 400m indoors is such a new event to me because indoors, you have to run two 200m laps compared to the full 400m lap outdoors. It takes time to learn the event. 

‘The 400m qualification time is 53.75 so it should be achievable.’

If Healy qualifies for the 400m for the Europeans she will also try to achieve the 200m qualifying time in February as she looks to maintain her turn of speed.

Looking further ahead to the outdoor season, the West Cork sprinter will focus on the 400m but will also drop back to 100m and 200m depending on competitions.

The European Indoor Athletics Championships will be held at the Kombank Arena in Belgrade, Serbia from March 3-5.