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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Darragh Culhane

Louise Shanahan finishes eight in European 800m final

Louise Shanahan finished eight in her 800m European final in a rainy Munich on Saturday evening as Olympic star Keely Hodgkinson raced to gold.

Shanahan is the current Irish record holder and put in a valiant effort in her final run.

The Irish athlete was well positioned at the half way mark as she sat in fifth place as athletes crossed the line at a blistering pace just shy of 59 seconds.

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But the Leevale athlete ultimately did not have the legs to hang on for the final 400 metres.

The Cork woman eventually crossed the line in a time of 2:01:64 while Olympic silver medal winner Hodgkinson crossed at 1:59:04 in an impressive run.

Renelle Lamote from France finished in second while Poland's Anna Wielgosz rounded out the medals.

And speaking to RTE Sport after the race, Shanahan did not regret her fast start,

She said: "I wanted to make sure in that first lap I went out hard and put myself in a position where I was competing for a medal

"Unfortunately, I didn't really have the strength from 4-600, and I wasn’t there when it came to the final sprint at the end.

"Maybe if I had played it a bit safer in the opening lap I could have been there picking off a few people, but I didn't come here today to play it safe, I wanted a medal."

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