It had been a frustrating time with injury for Michael McKillop but he returned to the podium this afternoon at the World Para Athletics European Championships thanks to an excellent run in the 1500m T37/38 Final.
McKillop had shown some encouraging form in the City of Lisburn event last weekend and was able to reproduce that form en route to the silver medal position in Bydgoszcz. It took a European Record to keep the Irish Paralympic legend from winning a gold medal. That European Record performance was provided by Redouane Hennouni Bouzidi who came home in 4:04:39.
David Leavy also competed in the same race and finished in a very encouraging time of 4:26:01 to take 7th position in the race.
Speaking after the race McKillop said “I felt alright, I went out there to win like I usually do. I got beaten by the better guy on the day, he took it out and went hard, I just couldn’t bridge the gap back to him after a lap so fair play to him, I’ve got to take it on the chin and get my head down really for Tokyo.”
David Leavy said “I felt good, I went with the pack trying to run a good race. Just got three quarters of the way through the race and struggled. Good progress and a seasons best, a good point to work from, hopefully just improve, get better, get the head down and some better races to come.”
See the full post race interview with Michael and David here: https://youtu.be/M9N5IWdx_-k
