A tale of two semi-finals for Smith and Gaffney at European Athletics U18 Championships

By Damian Lawlor in Rieti

In the first heat of the girls 800m semifinals Tara-Rose Smith (Finn Valley AC) made the wise decision to hang back in fourth on the first lap as  Živa Remic from Slovenia set out at breakneck speed. However despite her caution the pace was still outrageous. Tara-Rose got the bell with the clock showing sixty seconds and not only was the Slovenian continuing the brutal pace but another pair of competitors had closed up on the Finn Valley athlete.  Tara-Rose fought on and in the last hundred metres was still in contention for a qualifying spot. She just could not get on terms with Spain’s Aitana Navajo who secured the last qualifying spot from heat one. Still Tara-Rose’s brave run was rewarded with a fantastic new personal best of 2:06.73. The semifinal was so fast that the young Slovenian had run a new Championship Best Performance of 2:04.19.

In heat two the pace was also set by a Slovenian competitor but the 61.2 second first lap of Maša Weber was not on the same level as the 59.2 her compatriot had produced in the first lap. Isabelle Gaffney (West Waterford AC) sat back in fifth a position she maintained until three hundred metres to go. As she went through the gears on the back straight the race was really heating up but she remained calm. Down the finishing straight she maintained great running form while some of the others arms flailed. Her composure paid off and Isabelle just held off Ezrah Harrold from Britain to secure an automatic qualifying spot in a time of 2:06.71.