Fitzsimons bows out of 800m heats at European Indoors

John Fitzsimons failed to progress from his 800m heats at the European Indoors Athletics Championships in Istanbul.

Mark English, twice a European Indoors medallist, was a late withdrawal due to illness, so 24-year-old Fitzsimons was flying the Irish flag in the event at the Atakoy Arena.

The Kildare athlete was up against it in a heavy-hitting third heat, with Belgium's Elliot Crestan, Andreas Kramer of Sweden and Tony van Diepen of the Netherlands battling it out for the top two automatic spots.

Fitzsimons bided his time at the back early doors amid early jostling before he made inroads on the outside.

In fifth position at the bell, Fitzsimons passed Greece’s Christos Kotitsas to place fourth in a time of 1.49.36 in a race where Crestan edged out Kramer for the win.

John Fitzsimons on his way to a fourth-place finish in the 800m heats at the European Indoors Athletics Championships. A time of 1.49.36 was not good enough to progress to the semi-finals pic.twitter.com/IKgq6WHUjH

In what turned out to be one of the slower heats, Van Diepen, a silver medallist from two years ago in Turun, failed to make the semi-finals with a time of 1.48.50.

Andrew Coscoran (6.15pm) and Luke McCann (6.25pm) will feature later in the 1500m heats.