Lavin falls short of World Indoor final after costly mistake
ERROR: Sarah Lavin of Ireland competes in the women's 60m hurdles. Pic: Sportsfile
There was disappointment for Sarah Lavin at the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China, the 30-year-old Limerick athlete clocking 8.14 to finish seventh in the 60m hurdles semi-final.
With only the top two advancing to the final automatically, it was always going to be a difficult assignment for Lavin, and she knew she needed to attack the first barrier to stand a chance.
However, Lavin got that one wrong, clattering the hurdle and with that her chance was gone. Poland’s Pia Skrzyszowska took victory in 7.79 ahead of Jamaica’s Ackera Nugent (8.00) and China’s Wu Yanni (8.01), and the frustration for Lavin will be that a reproduction of the 7.92 she ran in the European indoor final two weeks ago would have been enough to advance.
There are some disciplines at the World Indoors where fields are diluted in quality, but the hurdles is certainly not one of them, the majority of the world’s best toeing the line at a time of unprecedented quality in the event.
Lavin has twice reached the world indoor final in the past, finishing seventh in Belgrade in 2022 and fifth last year in Glasgow. Earlier in the day, Lavin had clocked 8.04 to finish second in her heat.
At the European Indoors in Apeldoorn two weeks ago, she finished fourth in the 60m hurdles final, less than a tenth of a second away from a medal.
For the Irish team, it brings to an end what was nonetheless a hugely successful championships, with Kate O’Connor winning the first Irish medal since Derval O’Rourke’s 60m hurdles gold 19 years ago, taking silver in the pentathlon to add to her recent European indoor bronze, and Sarah Healy and Andrew Coscoran both finishing sixth in the 3000m finals.
