Darragh vows to bounce back

DARRAGH McElhinney has vowed to bounce back from his disappointing run at the IAAF U20 World Championships in Finland on Saturday.

The Bantry AC runner finished 18th in a top-class 5000m field at the championships in Tampere, Finland, with a time of 14:53.63, over 40 seconds slower than his personal best.

The race was won by Kenyan Edward Zakayo Pingua in 13:20.16, and if the Glengarriff teenager had been able to match his PB of 14:11, he’d have finished eighth in the world.

‘I felt grand early on, running 67 (seconds), 68 (seconds), which is my PB pace,’ Darragh explained afterwards.

‘I don’t know what happened, about a mile in I started falling off the pace and I just couldn’t get back on it.

‘I’m seriously disappointed because this has been the target – but onwards and upwards.

‘I just couldn’t produce it on the day but I’ll be back.’

The 28 degree heat didn’t help Darragh either, but he’ll bounce back from his first experience at world championship level and learn a lot from racing against the best athletes on the planet. He’ll take a well-earned three week break now before preparation starts for the European Cross-Country Championships that will be held in Holland in December.