McKillop takes European gold

Ireland's reigning double Paralympic and World champion and world record holder Michael McKillop has added another European title to his name with a commanding performance to win the final of the T38 800m at the Paralympic Athletics European Championships in Swansea, in a time of 1:57.16.

Starting in lane seven the Antrim man led from the gun but with the Russian athlete Chermen Kobesov right on his heels. After only 200m the pair drew clear on the field and it was evident McKillop, 24, was not going to have it all his own way.

With Kobesov still tracking McKillop going through the bell in the Irishman made a decisive push with 350m to go to which Kobesov was not able to respond. McKillop began to pull away and pushed hard to cross the line in 1:58.16, almost eight seconds ahead of the Russian, to a rousing reception from the Welsh crowd. Ukraine's Valentyn Miedviediev took bronze in 2:16.57.

Speaking after the win a delighted McKillop said: "I won't lie, that was tough, but I'm delighted to win the medal. The Russian is a really strong 400m runner, and I knew he'd run fifty-one seconds over that distance so it was really important for me to take it out hard or he would have outkicked me and that's what I did.

"I pushed on for 200m after the bell and then just got through it from there."

McKillop, who is coached by his father Paddy, has only recently recovered from a lengthy period of rehabilitation following a serious foot injury.

"This is only my first 800m race of the season," said McKillop. "It's tough at the best of times facing into your first 800m of the season but for it to be a Championship final and only on the back of two 1500m races all season makes the win all the more satisfying."

Following his superb showing in the T51 400m final yesterday Wheelchair racer John McCarthy finished fifth in the final of the T51 100m in a time of 26.25seconds.

As with the 400m last night the race was won by Toni Piispanen of Finland in 23:56.

McCarthy was hoping to post a good time in today's final but just as the racers lined up at the start the wind picked up greatly to measure -0.4m/s making fast times impossible.

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