Nicola Tuthill is through to the Hammer Throw final at Birmingham 2026.
The UCD athlete produced a best effort of 70.09m in qualification to finish fourth in Group B. Her throw placed her in eighth overall, securing her place in Wednesday evening’s final at 7.45pm.
Outside of Tuthill’s success, it was a difficult first evening for Irish athletes at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham, as Sarah Lavin, Ciara Neville, Abbie Sheridan failed to progress in their respective events.
Nick Griggs was best of the three Irishmen in the 5000m final as he finished in eighth in a time of 13:21.07.
Eric Favors had a best effort of 19.59m in round three of the shot put final, which was won by Leonardo Fabbri of Italy with 22.31m.
Limerick duo Lavin & Neville exit
Limerick’s Sarah Lavin competed in the women’s 100m hurdles on Monday evening. Despite running a season’s best time of 13.07 seconds, the dual Olympian could only manage sixth place in her heat. With the 12 fastest times over the three heats progressing, the 2023 European bronze medallist’s time left her in 15th place, and as a result, did not progress through to the semi-final.
A disappointed Sarah Lavin said after losing out on a semi-final spot:
“I really thought I could get out of the heat here. It’s a season’s best after a turbulent couple of months, and I’m proud I got to the line and delivered my best run of the season, but I want to be in finals.
“I knew I had to be sub-13 to qualify. I’ve gone under 13 seconds 52 times in my life, but my legs just didn’t lift to the same capacity over the last three hurdles. To get back under 13 seconds by the end of the season will be the goal now, and that would be a fantastic building block going into next year and moving towards LA.”
Another Limerick member of the Irish team competing in Birmingham, Ciara Neville, exited the 100m at the semi-final stage this evening. The Emerald AC athlete, who won back-to-back gold medals outdoors over 100m at the 123.ie National Senior Track and Field Championships, ran 11.57 seconds to finish in eighth place in semi-final two – a time which was well outside her PB of 11.31 seconds which she set earlier this year.
Commenting on her performance tonight, Neville said:
“I’m disappointed because I know that I had a better performance in me,” said Neville. “I’ll have to watch it back and see where it went wrong.
“Getting to the semi-final at my first individual senior outdoor championships was the goal, but I wanted to put out a performance in the semi-final. I’ll take from this experience and build on it next time.”
Abbie Sheridan, making her international debut at the European Championships, finished heat 2 of the women’s 3000m steeplechase in fourteenth position, in 9:57.50 – almost 14 seconds outside the Louth woman’s PB for the event.
