Saturday night in Rome and as the focus on the latest Irish medal hope inside the Stadio Olimpico turned to Sarah Lavin, so too came the reminder that anything can and often does go wrong in the final.
Just over two hours after delivering the perfect race to win her 100 metres hurdles semi-final on day two of the European Championships, Lavin clipped the second of the 10 hurdles in that final showdown, and with that immediately started to lose ground on the chief medal contenders in the three lanes outside of her.
Clearly losing some rhythm and, with that, confidence too, Lavin, running in lane four, ended up seventh in 12.94 seconds, well off her best of 12.62 seconds clocked last summer. The look of utter disappointment on her face said it all.
It was a thrilling and exceptionally high-quality final nonetheless. Cyréna Samba-Mayela from France, the World Indoor champion in the 60m hurdles champion running in lane five, won in a European Championship record of 12.31 seconds, also a lifetime best.
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Ditaji Kambundji from Switzerland, out in lane eight and the bronze medal winner last time out, nailed second in 12.40 seconds, bronze this time going to Pia Skrzyszowska from Poland, the defending champion, also in a personal best of 12.42 seconds.
Britain’s Cindy Sember, running in lane seven, was fourth in 12.56, also a season best.
“Not much to say, other than I smashed the second hurdle, and lost all momentum,” Lavin conceded.
Earlier, running in the first of three semi-finals, with only the top two sure of progressing to the later final, Lavin produced a calm and controlled race to take the win in 12.73 seconds, equalling her season best in the process, and with that raising some hope of a medal, perhaps.
By her own previous admission, Lavin had said it would likely require a run in the 12.50s to make the podium, faster than she’s ever run before; as it turned out, all three medals were won well inside 12.50.
For Lavin, already qualified for the Olympics, the attention now turns to Paris.
It’s not yet a year since she took down Derval O’Rourke’s 13-year-old Irish record at the World Championships in Budapest last August. Then she clocked 12.62 seconds in her semi-final, improving the 12.65 O’Rourke set when winning the silver medal at the 2010 European Championships in Barcelona; her second successive silver, remember.
Israel Olatunde also returned for the semi-finals of the 100m, having made the final in Munich in 2022, when lowering the Irish record to 10.17 seconds, although it wasn’t to be this time, as he finished sixth in 10.40, short of the season best of 10.31 he ran in Friday’s heats.
Things here were also far from straightforward, as Olatunde, racing in the first of three semi-finals, endured an almost 20-minute delay. A faulty start required a complete re-run of his race, half the starters failing to hear to recall gun and ran half the length of the track.
When they eventually got going, Olatunde got out of the blocks well, only to fade slightly in the closing 20m, Britain’s Romell Glave winning in 10.11 seconds.
Later, Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway completed the first half of a potential third consecutive European 1,500m/5,000m double, winning the 5,000m with another masterclass of tactical running, the 23-year-old easing away from the entire field from the bell lap to win in 13:20.11.
Ireland’s Brian Fay, though well distanced from Ingebrigtsen going into the last lap, still finished strong to place 14th in 13:29.48, and like Lavin, his attention now turns to the Paris Olympics.
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