By Damian Lawlor in Rieti
In her heat the of girl’s 400m yesterday Evelyn Kwik (Dundrum South Dublin AC) was able to run a controlled effort in the early stages of the race. Today on the start line for her semi-final she knew if she could run close to her personal best of 54.61 she would be in contention for a place in the final. However in contrast to yesterday in the first semi-final Evelyn would have to judge the pace by herself as she was out in lane eight and would have to run blind to the progress of her opposition for the first three hundred metres.
Evelyn was out quick and really committed in the early stages. She stretched away from those inside her and as she entered the finishing straight was in second and in contention for one of the two automatic qualification spots. However down that finishing straight she could not keep up the momentum of her run. Evelyn faded back to sixth, crossing the finish line in 55.21.
In heat two Aisling Shevlin (Ratoath AC) lined up in lane two. It was hard for the young Meath woman to judge her pace in the early stages as the Serbian Teodora Popovic in the lane outside her went off at a frantic pace. Like her teammate in the previous heat Aisling held good form until the final straight and it was only in that final quarter of the race straight that she faded out of contention for qualification.