BALLINEEN bullet Phil Healy won her 12th national senior title at the recent Irish championships in Dublin after racing to glory in the women’s 200m final.
It helped Healy complete a 100m and 200m national senior double and rubber-stamp her position as the queen of Irish sprinting, Healy was pushed all the way in this 200m final by Sarah Lavin but had enough to win in 23.57 and sign off her 2020 season with another gold medal.
To mark her 12 national senior titles, here are the 12 gold medals the West Cork sports star has won. There’s an even split with six indoor and six outdoor gold medals since 2014:
GOLD 1 (100m outdoors) – In July 2014 Healy (19) won her first senior national title. She brought gold back to West Cork after she finished in a dead heat for first place with Amy Foster in the women’s 100m final at the national championships. They couldn’t be separated and ran 11.49.
GOLD 2 (60m indoors) – In late February 2016 Healy won her first national indoor gold medal when sprinting to glory in the women’s 60m final in Athlone, winning in 7.47, with her sister Joan in third place. It was the first of a double at these championships.
GOLD 3 (200m indoors) – There was no stopping Healy in the 200m final at Athlone in February 2016 as she surged to gold in 23.75, which was just one hundredth of a second off her PB at the time.
GOLD 4 (400m indoors) – At the 2017 national indoor championships Healy hit the headlines when she won gold in the women’s 400m with a new personal best time of 53.49. It was also just her sixth indoor 400m race.
GOLD 5 (200m outdoors) – In July of 2017 West Cork’s golden girl was topping the podium again when she won her first 200m outdoor title at the nationals with her second fastest 200m time ever (23.56). She had set a new PB (23.32) only four days earlier at the Cork City Sports event.
GOLD 6 (400m indoors) – The Ballineen bullet was utterly dominant in the women’s 400m at the indoor championships in February 2018 as she defended her title and won in a championship record time of 53.10.
GOLD 7 (200m outdoors) – Ahead of the 2018 European Athletics Championships in Berlin Healy warmed up by defending her 200m Irish outdoor title that July and, again, was a convincing winner as she crossed the line in 23.64, almost six tenths of a second ahead of Ciara Neville.
GOLD 8 (400m indoors) – Healy highlighted that she is in a league of her own at the 2019 indoor nationals in February with a convincing victory in the women’s 400m final with a time of 52.81, as she led from the blocks to the line.
GOLD 9 (200m outdoors) – She broke her foot in April 2019 but in late July Healy was back on track and winning more gold as she rocketed to a successful defence of her 200m national title at Morton Stadium in Santry. Healy won in 23.33, almost a full second ahead of second place. Again, utterly dominant.
GOLD 10 (200m indoors) – On February 29th, 2020, the queen of Irish sprinting was at her brilliant best as she won the 200m national indoor title in Athlone with the second fastest time by an Irish woman in this distance, and also a championship record. Her winning time of 23.16 was just outside the Irish record of 20.10 Healy had set earlier in the month.
GOLD 11 (100m outdoors) – National 100m record holder Healy dropped back down to the 100m for this summer’s nationals and, not surprisingly, won gold. Depsite racing into a strong headwind the Bandon AC superstar won the final in 11.71.
GOLD 12 (200m outdoors) – Wearing number 12 at the nationals last weekend it was fitting that Healy won her 12th national title as she defended her 200m crown with a time of 23.57 and held off the challenge of Sarah Lavin in second place.
