Newly-crowned 2018 West Cork Sports Star of the Year Phil Healy has hit the ground running this season.
NEWLY-CROWNED 2018 West Cork Sports Star of the Year Phil Healy has hit the ground running this season.
In her first race of the year, the Ballineen woman scorched to a tremendous win in the 400m at the Vienna International Indoor Meet.
Her time of 52.31 moves her to the top of the European indoor 400m rankings and, while it’s still very early in the year, it’s also the second fastest time in the world so far in 2019.
Healy (24) also secured the qualifying standard for the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow in early March; that was one of her targets flying out to Austria so it’s a box ticked early in the season.
The West Cork sprinter finished ahead of last year’s European outdoor bronze medallist, Lisanne de Witte from The Netherlands, while British star Eilidh Doyle, a 2018 World Indoor Championships bronze medallist, was third in 53.08.
It’s a hugely encouraging start to the indoor season for Healy who ran her 400m indoor PB of 52.08 at this same meet in 2018.
Healy became the fastest Irish woman in history in 2018 when she set new national records in both the 100m and 200m.
