PHIL Healy rubber-stamped her position as the queen of Irish women’s sprinting with her 14th senior national title on Sunday.
On Saturday the Ballineen bullet won her first 400m outdoor crown at the Irish Life Health National Track Field Championships, and on Sunday she completed a sprint double with an epic 200m triumph.
The women’s 200m final was a showdown between the Bandon AC star and her closest rival Rhasidat Adeleke (Tallaght AC), who recently broke Healy’s 200m national record.
This race was always going to be close, but no-one could have predicted just how close it would be, as 26-year-old Healy edged out Adeleke by one hundredth of a second, Healy’s 22.83 to Adeleke’s 22.84.
The queen of Irish sprinting has done it again!
What an incredible win by @philhealy2 in the women's 200m final at the senior nationals as she won by one hundredth of a second.
That's senior title number 14! pic.twitter.com/sCFuZZKLMr— Kieran McCarthy (@KieranMcC_SS) June 27, 2021
Both were inside Adeleke’s national record of 22.96, but the +2.1 m/s tailwind was just over the legal limit of +2.0, so the time doesn’t stand as a national record.
Still, it was a timely reminder to all that Healy is still the best in the business.
Another Bandon AC athlete Lauren McCourt (18) finished sixth in the final and set a new PB (24.16) in the heat earlier in the day.
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