WHAT a few days it has been for Portaferry’s Ciara Mageean.
The 26 year-old athlete confirmed her status as Ireland’s Queen of the Boards when she set a new Irish indoor record in the 1500m at the AIT International Grand Prix meeting in Athlone last Wednesday
Three days later she was again in sparkling form when showing a clean pair of heels to the rest of the field in the 3000m race at the National Indoor Championships in Dublin.
It’s a massive shot in the arm for the Portaferry flyer ahead of the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow next month.
Mageean took nearly two seconds off her own 1500m record as she earned an impressive win in Athlone on Wednesday night.
She clocked 4:06.76 — the fourth fastest time this year — as she held off a strong challenge from Romania’s Claudia Bobocea. She set her previous record of 4:08.66 in Karlsruhe in 2016.
With Britain’s Ellie Baker completing the first lap in 66 seconds, previous stadium record holder Bobocea and Mageean quickly broke away from a field which included former world championship medallist Hannah England and young Sarah Healy.
After Baker ped out, Mageean remained on Bobocea’s shoulder until the start of the final lap and while the Romanian continued to battle, the Portaferry woman maintained her form to win by 0.29 seconds.
“I’m absolutely delighted to come away with the win in front of an Irish crowd,” Mageean, the 2016 European outdoor bronze medallist, said afterwards.
“The pacing was absolutely spot on and whenever she stepped off, Bobocea picked up the pace and I was happy to go with that.”
Also in the field was Newcastle’s Kerry O’Flaherty, who finished seventh in 4:22.44.
It was a similar story 72 hours later when Mageean won the 3000m title on the opening day of the National Indoor Championships.
She pulled away on every lap to win comfortably in a time of 9:02.57.
She insists she won’t be attempting the 1500m and 3,000m double in Scotland.
“It was something my coach Steve Vernon and I looked at, but I’m going to focus on the 1500m,” she said.
“I was aiming to go out in sub nine minutes, I just fell short of that, but got the European standard.”
Mageean says she was happy with her indoor form ahead of her national record exploits during the week.
“I’m feeling good and going from strength to strength, she said.