Fionnuala Britton sets new PB time for 3,000m indoors in Germany

Last Saturday (2nd Feb), the European Cross Country Champion Fionnuala Britton set a new personal best time of 8:55.22 at a 3,000m indoor race in Karlsruhe, Germany. Even though she finished in third place, her time was nearly 5 seconds faster than the 9:00 minutes needed to qualify for selection for the Irish team to go to the European Indoor Track and Field Championships in Gothenbourg, Sweden in March.

The race was won by the Olympic 5,000m Champion Meseret Defar of Ethiopia in a time of 8.35.28.

Results - Women's 3000m
Rank    Athlete    Nation    Result    React.time
1    Defar, Meseret    ETH    WL, MR 8:35:28
2    HARRER, Corinna    GER    EL 8:51:04
3    BRITTON, Fionnuala    IRL    PB 8:55:22
4    ABDULLAYEVA, Layes    AZE      8:57:17
5    DIMA Gete,    ETH      9:02:48
6    GONZALEZ, Paula    ESP      9:06:02
7    BEKELE, Mekdes    ETH      9:06.99
8    URBINA, Teresa    ESP    PB 9:09:50

Prior to this, Fionnuala's best time for the 3,000m indoors was 9:00.7 which was set back in February 2011. Her latest time makes her the third fastest Irish woman for this distance indoors.

3000m...Irish Indoor Records...Sub 9 mins
1 8.43.74 Mary Cullen 82 1 Boston 13.02.09
2 8.44.37  Sonia O'Sullivan 69 7 Lisbon 10.03.01
3 8.55.22  Fionnuala Britton 84 3 Karlsruhe 02.02.13
4 8.56.48  Maria McCambridge 75 1 Belfast 14.02.04
5 8.58.33  Sinead Delahunty 71 2 Atlanta 04.03.95
6 8.58.55  Marie Davenport 75 1 Boston 14.02.04
7 8.58.94 Deirdre Byrne 82 10 Doha 12.03.10