Leon Reid: Northern Irishman sets second PB of weekend at Dublin elite indoor meet with 6.68m 60m
Last updated on .From the section Athletics
Leon Reid moved second on the Irish all-time list for 60m indoors as he set a personal best of 6.68 seconds at the elite indoor meeting in Dublin.
The Commonwealth 200m medallist clocked 6.72 in his first race on Sunday before setting his new PB as he held off UCD's Israel Olatunde in both races.
Olatunde set new national under-20 and under-23 records as he ran 6.73 in the second race after earlier posting 6.74.
Reid's runs completed a fine weekend after his 200m indoor PB of 20.96.
Very much a specialist 200m runner, Reid's performances at the National Indoor Arena will offer him big encouragement for this Olympic year.
The Northern Ireland athlete, 26, could go close to Paul Hession's 2007 Irish record of 6.61 at the European Indoors Championships in two weeks with Otalunde and Ballymena & Antrim's athlete Dean Adams also having achieved the standard for the sprint in Torun.
Adams clocked 6.78 second in the opening 60m before opting out of race two.
Hartigan earns superb women's 800m win
Despite the absence of in-form Nadia Power and Ciara Mageean, the women's 800m looked set to be the most competitive race of day two at the Dublin meeting and it didn't disappoint as Dundrum South Dublin's Georgie Hartigan produced a sensational run to take victory in 2:01.48.
Hartigan's time took nearly three seconds off her previous indoor best set in Manchester last weekend, although she did clock 2:02.99 outdoors last summer, and moved her to second on the Irish all-time indoor list behind Power's national record of 2:00.98 set in midweek.
London-born Hartigan followed the quick early pace set by rabbit Sinead Denny and showed immense bravely in holding off Leevale's Louise Shanahan, who had the consolation of also improving her lifetime test to 2:01.67.
Raheny's Iseult O'Donnell also set a PB of 2:02.29 in third with Claire Mooney fourth in 2:04.29 and Ulster University athlete Katie Kirk having to settle for fifth in 2:05.37 after being unable to get into contention.
Ireland's top female sprinter Phil Healy produced encouraging form ahead of the European Indoors as she won the 400m in a personal best of 51.99 seconds which moved her to sixth in this season's European rankings.
Healy looks to be in the kind of form which could see her threatening Karen Shinkins' 19-year-old Irish record of 51.58 seconds in Poland.
Molly Scott will hope to get the nod to join Healy in the Irish team in Torun after twice achieving exactly the women's 60m standard of 7.36 seconds.
The men's 1500m proved another fine middle-distance performance - just like Saturday's 800m won by Mark English - as UCD's Luke McCann won in a personal best of 3:40.03 which sees him become the third fastest of the the seven Irish athletes who have achieved the European Indoor standard of 3.42.75.
McCann held off Saturday's impressive 3,000m winner John Travers who clocked 3:41.74.
The men's 400m was also a competitive affair with the first three all going sub-48 seconds as Sligo man Christopher O'Donnell (47.51) held off Northern Ireland athlete Andrew Mellon (47.79) and Cathal Crosbie (47.98).
Northern Ireland Commonwealth Games athlete and European Under-20 medallist Kate O'Connor had to settle for third in the women's long jump with a best leap of 5.78m - 16 centimetres behind winner Sarah McCarthy.
