Silver medal for Tipperary's Katie Bergin at National Indoor Athletics Championships

Katie Bergin won silver in the 200 metres at the 123.ie National Senior Indoor Athletics Championships, which took place at the Sport Ireland National Indoor Arena in Blanchardstown, Dublin at the weekend. 

There were eight heats in the 200 metres and qualification to the final was for the six fastest times, which meant that winning your heat was no guarantee of a lane in the final, so there was no hiding place.

Katie Bergin lined out in lane six of heat two and clocked a personal best of 24.33 seconds. The Moyne athlete then had to sit out the remaining six heats before being sure of a place in the final. As it turned out Katie recorded the second fastest time of the eight heats, which guaranteed her lane five in the final, with Olympian Phil Healy out in lane six. 

In the final Katie came out of the blocks hard and managed to stay in contact with Healy for 150 metres. Healy's years of 400 metres endurance gave her the edge entering the final straight, and Katie crossed the line in second place with another personal best of 24.26, 0.89 seconds off the winner and 0.57 seconds ahead of Alana Ryan in third. 

Having won bronze last year and silver this year, hopefully that gold medal will come someday.

Running thirteen races in 35 days and getting nine personal bests in the process took its toll and the chance of doing herself justice in the 60 metres on Sunday was a bridge too far for Katie on this occasion.