Ireland’s Alex Wright has finished down the field in 31st in the men’s 20k walk at the World Athletics Championships in Doha.

This wasn’t an easy assignment for Ciara Mageean, for reasons that run far deeper than performance alone. Either way, it was one she passed with flying colours here at the World Championships in Doha.

Mark English and Ciara Mageean will spearhead the home interest at tonight’s Morton Games and, with a little over five weeks until the World Championships, it’s a key chance for them against international rivals.

There may be two months to go, but despite a late start to the year, Ciara Mageean is well ahead of time.

Scintillating, thrilling and full of potential - Ciara Mageean has moved considerably closer to Sonia O’Sullivan’s long-standing Irish women’s mile record by carving three-and-a-half seconds off her lifetime best in Monaco, in a race where the vintage world record was smashed by Sifan Hassan.

When the dust has settled, the medals safely stowed away, the question is not so much about what Irish athletes achieved at last weekend’s European Indoor Championships, but how they did it.

The smile said it all — a bright, bleary-eyed grin, Ciara Mageean’s eyes close to tears for reasons of a very different kind to what we had seen before.

One of those glorious nights to remember in Irish athletics as Mark English and Ciara Mageean scored European Indoor bronze medals within 90 minutes of each other in Glasgow.

Mark English has won bronze for Ireland at the European Indoor Athletics Championships in Glasgow, grabbing his third major Championship medal in the 800 metres.

As Irish teams go, this is a strong one, with three medal contenders lurking in their midst — and that’s before we get to Thomas Barr, an Olympic finalist and European bronze medallist.

A strong Irish team of 16 athletes have been selected for next month's European Indoor Athletics Championships in Glasgow.

Ciara Mageean will go to next week’s European Indoor Championships in Glasgow as a strong medal contender in the 1500m after a highly impressive victory at the national indoor arena on Saturday, the 26-year-old coasting to the Irish 3000m title in 9:02.57.

After a flying start to the season, Ciara Mageean is optimistic about her medal chances at next month’s European Indoor Championships in Glasgow, where the 26-year-old is set to take on home favourite Laura Muir over 1500m.

Few people know a thing about it but the brains behind the inaugural European Championships, starting this morning and continuing over the next 10 days in Glasgow and Berlin, plan to change all that.

Thomas Barr (Ferrybank) and Ciara Mageean (UCD) will lead a strong Irish team of 41 athletes competing at the European Athletics Championships in Berlin on August 6-12.

Medal hopes Thomas Barr and Ciara Mageean gave themselves the perfect send-off for next week’s European Championships in Berlin with foot-perfect performances at the Irish Life Health National Championships in Santry yesterday.

They stayed in their lanes, didn’t get disqualified, and at an event that threatened to descend into farce at one point, there’s something to be said for that.

There won’t be any medals, that’s for sure, and we’re unlikely to see any Irish athlete make a final, but that’s not to say we should stick a skewer in the IAAF World Indoor Championships before they’ve even begun.

Irish athletes face an uphill struggle at the World Athletics Championships, which kick off in London tomorrow. Fierce global competition and drugs are two obvious reasons but there are obstacles a lot closer to home, argues Brendan O’Brien.

Less than two weeks out from the World Championships in London, this was always going to be a fact-finding mission for Ciara Mageean, Mark English, Brian Gregan, and Thomas Barr, and though each of them faced a test of differing degrees of difficulty, they all passed with flying colours.

Brian Gregan stole Ciara Mageean’s thunder as he set a new personal best at the Morton games as Mageean missed the two-minute mark.

Ciara Mageean will bid to become the first Irish woman to break two minutes for 800m when she lines out at the Morton Games in Dublin this evening.

Flagged as a great Irish middle-distance hope since winning silver at the World Youth Championships in 2009, Ciara Mageean has been hampered by severe injury. But the Portaferry native made good on her talent last July, with a 1,500m bronze medal at the European Championships in Amsterdam.

Ciara Mageean has qualified for August’s World Athletics Championships in London, by dipping well inside the IAAF qualifying standard for the 1500m at tonight’s Golden Gala Diamond League meeting in Rome.

Irish athletics faces some challenges after a difficult European Indoor Championships in Belgrade but there were some green shoots with Ciara Neville gaining valuable experience at her first senior championship.

Ciara Mageean made it through to this evening’s European Indoor 1500m final but it was far from pretty.

Bandon’s Phil Healy gets Irish interest underway at the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade today and she, like the rest of the Irish team, will need to be at her best to advance past the first round.

Ireland has one realistic medal chance as 567 athletes from 49 countries line up for the 34th European Indoor Championships, which start tomorrow in Belgrade.

Ciara Neville (Emerald) kept her cool to clinch gold after a poor start in the women’s 60m while Phil Healy (Bandon) secured the European standard for the 400m on a weekend full of back stories and close finishes at the Irish Life Health National Indoor Championships in Abbotstown, Dublin.

Ciara Neville’s life in the fast lane seemed to be running on fumes long before the Castletroy teenager had even gotten into top gear but a hard edge and support now sees her on the cusp of her first senior international championship.

Ciara Mageean couldn’t hide her disappointment after a fifth place finish in the women’s 1500m in 4:12.46 on an exciting night of athletics at the Athlone International Grand Prix. Athletics

Ciara Mageean is looking to kick-start her season this week after a rusty opening to 2017 as she bids to add to her medal haul at the European Indoor Championships in March.

Fionnuala McCormack will have to overcome her Turkish nemesis at the European Cross Country Championships in Chia, Italy, tomorrow.

Raheny Shamrock’s Mick Clohisey and UCD’s Ciara Mageean will be two of the leading lights at the Irish Life Health National Cross Country Championships at the Sport Ireland National Sports Campus tomorrow.

Day Seven of the Olympic Games produced even more history from an Irish point of view, with the medals table reached finally at the end of the opening week.

Mark English will be the first Irish athlete to take to the track in the Olympic Stadium this afternoon, the 23-year-old getting his campaign under way in the sixth heat of the men’s 800m at 2:55pm Irish time.

Three years ago, Ciara Mageean was unable to run, beset with injuries and staring down the barrel of career-threatening surgery.

For Ciara Mageean, the road to Rio runs through Amsterdam, and the journey starts today. 

On what was his 21st birthday, Marcus Lawler came of age in style yesterday by blitzing the field to win the 200m title at the GloHealth National Indoor Championships in Athlone.