Sarah Lavigne, an Irish 100m hurdler, is confident of her place in the Olympics after overcoming a 13-second hurdle for the first time in Madrid.
The Limerick woman, 27, dropped 0.24 seconds from her previous PB while running 12.95 seconds at the Silver Meeting of the World Athletics Continental Tour.
Lavigne scored 13.20 in the semifinals and made significant progress to finish second in the final.
Derwal Oroork was the only Irish woman to score 13 seconds.
Marking a return to the same level as Tokyo was approaching, Letterkenny’s mark finished second in the English men’s 800m in 1: 45.22 seconds, ending an amazing night for Ireland in Madrid.
When he won his second European silver ddor silver medal at the 2006 Barcelona Championships, the 2006 indoor world champion set an Irish 100m hurdles record of 12.65 seconds.
As the weekend progressed, Lavigne finished 43rd in the 100m hurdles rankings on his way to Tokyo to qualify for the Olympics.
With her best time being 13.19 seconds, Limerick is expected to move several points in the women’s rankings, which will end on June 29th.
He will have another chance to earn more decisive rating points at the Irish Championships in Santry next weekend.
The final in Madrid on Saturday night saw the first four matches, all made in less than 13 seconds.
At 12.80, French siren Samba-Mayila won, Lavin second and Elisa Maria de Lazaro third.
Another Italian, Luminosa Pogliolo, closed 13.02 ahead of Lavigna in the previous semifinals, finishing fourth with a time of 12.98.
In the men’s 800m, he finished just 0.05 seconds ahead of Dutchman Tony van Diepen.
When Solentuna won the Grand Prix in Sweden last weekend, the English reduced the previous season’s best set to 0.48, while the Spaniard finished third with a time of 1: 45.25.
The three-time British European medalist seems to be on the verge of threatening his best 1: 44.84, set in 2013.
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