Ciara back in mix

Ciara back in mix

25 May 2022

PORTAFERRY runner Ciara Mageean continues to make big strides upon her return to racing after recording a season’s best at the Birmingham Diamond League on Saturday.

The double European bronze medallist placed fourth in her 1500m event in a time of four minutes 05.70 seconds at Alexander Stadium.

The 30 year-old finished marginally behind third place, Kenya’s Winny Chebet (four minutes 05.56) and almost three seconds behind the winner, Britain’s Laura Muir, who is also an Olympic bronze medalist.

Muir obtained an early lead alongside eventual runner-up Jessica Hull, although the Aussie fell behind and couldn’t maintain the pace required for a dramatic finish.

Despite this, there was a sizeable gap away from the rest of the runners with Mageean battling valiantly for third place along with Muir’s British team-mates Jemma Reekie and Katie Snowden.

Although it would be Chebet who would ultimately finish in third, Mageean did manage to best the highly touted Reekie and Snowden in what was an impressive scalp for the local.

Also among the pack was Ireland’s Sara Healy, who will chalk this event off as one to forget after she failed to crack the top ten, placing 11th in four minutes 15.97 seconds.

Mageean will not be too disheartened to have been pipped to the podium as she revels in her recovery from a calf tear which ultimately ended her indoor season back in January.

On that occasion, the decorated athlete won the 3000m event at a World indoor tour meeting in Manchester with a time of eight minutes 47.23 seconds.

Since then, she has recovered well and is getting back to her best in the outdoor season.

Last weekend followed up a brilliant performance from seven days prior, when she broke the two minute mark in the 800m at the Irish Millers’ Meeting in Belfast.

Unfortunately for her, that wasn’t enough to better Louise Shanahan who came first and broke Mageean’s Irish record. 

However, it did represent an important milestone for Mageean as she edges closer to the level of fitness she had pre-injury.

This impressive performance from Mageean means she has achieved European qualifying marks in the 800m and 1500m.

She also boasts a World 1500m qualifier alongside 800m and 1500m consideration standards for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, an event which she has hinted heavily is her priority this year.

“There are three major championships: the world champs, Commonwealth Games and European champs,” said Mageean.

“I’m going to choose two out of the three – I haven’t made up my mind about which two, but the Commonwealth Games in August is certainly going to be a big focus and will be one of them, and hopefully I can come away with some good results.”

Mageean will once again feature at Upper Malone this weekend where she will compete in the Mary Peters 50th Anniversary meeting.