NIALL BRUTON had his expected victory and two new Irish records were set, by Ciaran McDonagh in the long jump and the 4 x 100 metre relay team, as Ireland moved into fourth place after day one of the Europa Cup in Lisbon.
It really was a terrific performance by Bruton, as the Clonliffe Harrier fell while warming up and injured his hip. But he showed that he was not in any way hampered as he displayed commendable speed over the final 300 metres to snatch victory.
The opening laps were run at pedestrian pace, with the initial 400 metres covered in 61 seconds. The second lap was even slower at 65 seconds, and there was a little improvement on the third, ensuring that the final run to the tape would be at a furious pace and so it proved. That 300 metres took 38 seconds.
Bruton's winning times was three minutes 49.87 seconds. Luis Jesus of Portugal was second in three minutes 49.98 seconds.
Ciaran McDonagh added seven centimetres to the Irish long jump record when he finished third in 7.86 metres. The Meathman started poorly, and registered fouls with his first two jumps. He gathered himself, however, and extended his personal best to 7.77 metres on the third jump. Despite another foul he reached out to 7.86 metres on his final effort.
Despite a terrible baton change on the first changeover between the Northern Irish pair of John McAdorey and Paul Brizzell, the 4 x 100 metre relay squad went on to lower the existing record to 40.47 seconds. Gary and Neil Ryan were the other members of the team.
Indeed Neil Ryan had earlier run his fastest ever over the 100 metres when he returned 10.43 seconds for the distance, but the wind was over the legal limit, measuring at 2.7 metres per second.
Tom McGuirk was involved in a high quality 400 metres hurdles race with Hungary's Dusan Kovacs, clocking 48.63, with the Irishman timed at 49.96 seconds, the third time that he has run below 50 seconds for the distance.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)