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In indoor championship running where anything can, and often does, go wrong tactics become paramount, and Phil Healy showed exactly why when easing through her qualifying heat of the 400 metres.
Leaving absolutely no room for error, Healy controlled the two-lap race in the first full session of the European Indoor Championships in Torun, Poland, taking the win in 52.00 seconds, just outside her lifetime best of 51.99 clocked in Dublin two weeks ago in what was her first race of the season.
The Cork woman ended up the fastest qualifier of the lot for this evening’s semi-finals (6.30 Irish time), that time also rewarded with an outside lane favoured in indoor running: running in the fifth of seven heats, with only the top two from each progressing, plus the four fastest-loser times, Healy got the better of Swiss runner Lea Sprunger, who took second in 52.25.
No such joy for Sophie Becker or Sharlene Mawdsley in their heats: Becker ran a time of 53.31 to claim a third place finish, but that wasn’t quite fast enough to qualify as one of the fastest losers; Mawdsley finished fifth in her heat in 53.68.
Later in the session, Nadia Power ran with similar tactical astuteness to book her place in Saturday’s 800m semi-finals, running comfortably throughout to clock 2:03.16, victory there going to Poland’s Anna Wielgosz in 2:02.72.



Nadia Power progressed from her 800m heat in Poland. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho


That turned out to be the fastest of the six heats, where only the top three progressed, leaving absolutely no room for error. Síofra Cléirigh Büttner discovered that when finishing fourth in her heat in 2:04.47, Georgia Hartigan also missing out despite a brave effort in the opening lap, as she also finished fourth in 2:04.74.
Friday evening’s session will see Mark English, Cian McPhillips and John Fitzsimons all line up in the men’s 800m heats (6.55), before both Andrew Coscoran and Paul Robinson go in the 1,500 metres final (8.35pm)
As expected qualification across their four heats on Thursday evening was hectic, with only the top two in each, plus the four fastest times, making the 12-man final: Coscoran was the first to book his place after taking third in Heat 2 in 3:39.00, which was the fastest of the non-automatic qualifiers, that race won by Spain’s Ignacio Fontes in 3:38.68, the fastest all evening.
Then came the 29 year-old Robinson who also took third in Heat 4, running strongly throughout to finish just .03 off second, running 3:40.07 to the 3:40.03 of Filip Sasinek of the Czech Republic, the win there going to defending champion Marcin Lewandowski in 3:39.78.
The third heat included Norway’s Jacob Ingebrigtsen, who is attempting a 1,500m-3,000m double, who duly booked his place in second (running 3:39.89, Britain’s Neil Gourley taking the win in 3:39.84), while 22 year-old Luke McCann fought hard for a place too, stumbling a little around the final bend before finishing fifth in 3:41.25 (the same time as fourth place).
Both Coscoran and Robinson are part of the Dublin Track Club training group.