Akpe-Moses and Neville hitting stride

IRISH sprinters Ciara Neville and Gina Akpe-Moses face the biggest test of their fledgling careers in Finland today in the 100m semi-finals at the World U-20 Championships.

Akpe-Moses, the European U-20 100m champion, will line up in the first semi-final at 4pm Irish time, where she is ranked third fastest of the eight competitors.

Neville will race in the third semifinal at 4:14pm, where the Limerick sprinter is ranked fifth. Only the top two from each heat automatically advance to tonight’s final.

Both were highly impressive in their heats yesterday, Akpe-Moses coming through a nervy few minutes after a poor start to finish second in 11.58 behind Daija Lampkin of the US.

“I thought I heard something so I didn’t move, but luckily it wasn’t a false start,” she said. “I’ll need to be aggressive now and meet it head on, be very calm, cool and focused.”

Neville clocked the second fastest time of her career, 11.54, to also finish second minutes earlier. Neville and Akpe-Moses will join forces with Patience Jumbo-Gula and Rhasidat Adeleke for the 4x100m at the weekend – the latter duo arriving in Finland after last week’s European U-18s – where they appear to hold an outside shot at a medal.

Elsewhere Belfast’s Davicia Patterson was unlucky to miss out on a place in the 400m final after finishing third in her semi-final in 53.57, the 17-year-old nursing an injured hamstring after the race.

Jo Keane of Ennis Track showed there is no shortage of talent in middle-distance, the 18-year-old setting a lifetime best of 2:06.91 to finish fifth in her 800m semi-final.