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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Eamon Doggett

Darragh McElhinney runs personal best but just misses out on European medal

Ireland's Darragh McElhinney ran a personal best to just miss out on a medal in the 3,000m at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Istanbul.

The UCD AC runner finished in fourth place in a field left in the wake of Norwegian superstar Jakob Ingebrigtsen.

McElhinney raced in the midfield of the 15 runners in the final as Ingebrigtsen began to set his own blistering fractions.

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While Ingebrigtsen was never for catching, McElhinney finished strongly and nearly reeled in Serbia's Elzan Bibic, who took the bronze medal.

It was a personal best of seven minutes 44.72 seconds for 22-year-old McElhinney, but he was gutted to miss out on a medal.

"I can't believe I came so close," he said. "I knew anyone who went with Jakob was going to die to a certain degree and that is what happened. I timed it perfectly, well, nearly perfectly

"If I'd gone a tiny bit earlier... but then I wouldn't have been as fresh as I was on the last lap. When I moved into fourth down the back straight, I thought I would get there. It's just a bit gutting."

Sarah Lavin made the 60m hurdles final and ran to her ranking in sixth place, although she rued a slow start in running a time of 8.03 seconds.

Ireland's 4x400m relay team of Sophie Becker, Sharlene Mawdsley, Cliodhna Manning, and Phil Healy finished fifth in their final as the Netherlands eased to the gold medal.

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