PHIL Healy’s coach has hailed the Ballineen Bullet’s ‘amazing durability’ after she was selected for her fifth consecutive European Athletics Indoor Championships.
Healy, fresh from winning a silver medal at the national indoor championships on Sunday, has been named in the Athletics Ireland squad heading to Apeldoorn in The Netherlands next week, with the action starting on March 6th and running to March 9th.
‘Fifth consecutive Euro Indoors for Phil, which is testament to her amazing durability,’ coach Shane McCormack said on ‘X’ after the Athletics Ireland selection heading to Apeldoorn was revealed.
Healy is part of the women’s 4x400m and mixed 4x400m relay squads that also include Sharlene Mawdsley (women’s and mixed), Rachel McCann (women’s and mixed), Cliodhna Manning (women’s), Lauren Cadden (women’s), Arlene Crossan (women’s), Conor Kelly (mixed), David Bosch (mixed) and Marcus Lawler (mixed).
The Bandon Athletic Club star is coming off the back of winning a silver medal at the national indoors, as her quest to win a ninth indoor gold just came up short. Incredibly, this was Healy’s TWELFTH consecutive Irish indoor championships, again a testament to her durability.
On Saturday Healy won her heat (55.22) and finished second in her semi-final (53.98) to book her place in a stacked 400m final on Sunday afternoon where her Irish relay team-mate Sharlene Mawdsley started as the favourite. As expected, the Newport AC athlete stamped her class on the field, attacking from the start and her strong first lap saw her leading at the break and avoiding any traffic.
While Mawdsley stormed to gold in 51.91, the drama came behind her as Healy, second after the first lap, held off the challenge of Rachel McCann down the home straight, while Lauren Cadden stepped off the track in the last lap as the battle for medals heated up. It was Healy who stayed on strong down the home straight, crossing the line in 53.25, just ahead of McCann (53.37).
Healy’s latest addition to her Irish indoor championships medal haul means she has now won 13 medals in this competition, dating back to her 60m silver medal in 2014.
While the 2021 indoors was classed as an ‘Elite Athlete Indoor Micro Meet’, because of Covid, it wasn’t technically a national championships, though Healy also won 400m gold that year. If we are counting 2021, Healy’s Irish indoor medal haul is as follows:
GOLD: 9 (60m, 2016; 200m, 2016, 2020, 2024; 400m, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2024).
SILVER: 3 (60m, 2014; 400m, 2023 and 2025).
BRONZE: 1 (60m, 2020).
