Hi °C | Lo °C YOUNG Kilkenny woman Ciara Everard (22) finished sixth in the 800m final at the European Indoor Athletics championships in a time that was just one hundredth of a second outside her best.
It was a brave performance by the UCD athlete in a world-class field in which Britain's defending champion Jenny Meadows could only finish fourth.
The Ukraine's world indoor silver medallist Nataliya Lupu came from fifth place at the bell to win it in 2:00.26, followed by Rusia's' Yelena Kotulskaya (2:00.98) and Belorussian Marina Arzamasova (2:01:52), with Meadow, who had lead for three laps, finishing fourth in 2:01:52.
Everard's time of 2:02.55 was just a fraction slower than the 2:02.54 Irish record she ran in Athlone this year and she was pretty happy with making her first ever championship final.
"After racing three-back-back races I just about equalled my personal best and I got a load of different kinds of racing experiences here so I have to be happy with that," Everard said.
