The pride of Portaferry

The pride of Portaferry

6 March 2019

PORTAFERRY’S Ciara Mageean was the toast of Irish athletics in Scotland on Sunday night.

The 26 year-old middle distance runner won bronze in the 1500m race at the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow — but it could so easily have been silver.

Mageean clocked a time of 4:09.43 behind runaway winner Laura Muir of Great Britain and was pipped on the line by Poland’s Sofia Ennaoui.

It is her first indoor medal at European level and goes along a bronze won over the same distance outdoors at the 2016 European Championships.

Ciara ran a patient race, taking an outside route during the bunched start, and as hometown hero Muir began to pick up the pace she looked assured of a medal going into the final lap.

It looked for a time like it might be silver as she headed Ennaoui coming off the final bend, but she cruelly beaten on the line.

She said afterwards: “People talk about different things in athletics, but I don’t do it for the money, and the amazing times are very few and far in between.”

For Mageean there was also added justification in her move to Manchester in late 2017 after a below-par run at the World Championships in London. 

She said she was delighted to win bronze, but admitted that she was slightly annoyed that it was not silver.

“I came into these championships to win a medal. But that’s the athlete and competitor in me. If anyone said to me a few months back you can take any medal, I’d have said yeah, I’ll have that. 

“But I knew I was in good shape, knew I was training well, in form, so be able to deliver that out on the track means an awful lot. 

“I just wanted to walk off the track with my head held high. I’ve beat myself up before after I’ve finished, but I go out to enjoy my athletics now as well,” she added.

Two bronze medals left Ireland 22nd on the medal table, but Mageean sees great potential in the Irish team and is hopeful for the future with the World Championships and the Tokyo Olympics on the horizon.

“For us to come away with two medals here is fantastic,” she said. “It is such a young team and I am delighted to be able to show the younger athletes that Ireland can be up there and we can be fighting.”

She added: ”To be able to come here and show off the form I’ve been in and 

walk away with a medal, you can’t be any more happy than that.”