Magical Mageean breaks another record
Mageean, a European Youth Olympic champion, is the hottest property in Irish athletics and she highlighted this fact with a stunning performance in the senior girls’ 1,500m which she won in a sensational 4:19.00, knocking 11½ seconds off the old record set by another star performer, Sinead Delahunty (Kilkenny VS) back in 1989.
Last year Mageean broke Sonia O’Sullivan’s Irish junior record when she won the 800m in 2:05.00 and this run moves her to the top echelon of the Irish rankings. It convinced her that the 1,500m will be her event when she travels to Canada in August for the world junior championships.
“I love both 800m and 1,500m,” she said. “And going on the world rankings, my 800m times would be better than the 1,500m but I feel I am improving at 1,500m – maybe get it down from 4:15 to around 4:10.
“I have not made my mind up about anything yet,” she added. I am getting phone calls and trying to keep my options open. I am contemplating taking a gap year. I don’t want to just launch into something for the sake of it.”
While all this was happening, the stadium was still buzzing after Siofra Cleirigh Buttner won the junior girls’ 1,500m in 4:28.1 which not only smashed the record set by Brigid Kilgannon from Castleblakney at 4:42.7 in 1985 but also bettered Sinead Delahunty’s senior record which was broken later by Ciara Mageean.
“I honestly don’t know how good this girl is going to be and I don’t think anyone does,” Dundrum/South Dublin coach, Eddie McDonagh, admitted. “I was in Ethiopia earlier this year and she is as good if not better than anything I saw down there.”
Amy O’Donoghue (Villers School, Limerick), a niece of former two-time world indoor champion, Frank O’Mara, showed that she, too, is special talent when she won the intermediate girls’ 800m in 2:10.80 which bettered the record set by Eimer Molloy from Ballymahon at 2:11.88 back in 1988 before going on to complete the classic double in the 1,500m (3:36.34).
Kate Veale (St Augustine’s, Dungarvan), one of those who qualified for the World Youth Olympics from the recent qualifier in Moscow, took her own inter girls’ 2,000m walk record to new heights with an 8:26.20 victory while Ciara Giles Doran (Mercy, Waterford) kept the focus on the Waterford sprinters by winning the inter girls’ 200m in 24.56 secs which broke the record set by current international, Amy Foster, at 24.69 five years ago. She also won the 100m in 11.92 secs from Lillyann O’Hora (Crescent CC), 12.00.
Other records included a new mark of 2.90m for Lucy Duggan (Belfast Royal Academy) in the inter girls’ pole vault while Evan Lynch (Gaelcholaiste Ceitinn, Clonmel) won the junior boys’ 1,200 walk in a record 5:09.04. Thomas Houlihan (St Augustine’s, Dungarvan) added a centimetre to his record when he won the senior boys’ pole vault at 4.51m.
It is hardly surprising that his coach is racing against time to have a passport to get him to the world junior championships in Canada after Seye Ogunlewe (Kings Hospital) recorded a fine double in the senior boy’s sprints before going on to pick up a third gold medal in the 4 x 100m relay.
The 6’4” Nigerian-born athlete who was retaining his 100m record, has been living in Ireland for the past three years with his sister who is studying at the Royal College of Surgeons. He has a world junior qualifying standard for 200m. “I am 12 months looking for a passport,” his coach, Des Doyle, said. “It is not a case of him depending on the State or anything like that. His sister is in the RCSI, his brother is studying law in England and he has another brother an engineer and they have an apartment in Sandyford.”
Patrick Maher (Davis College, Mallow) is another athlete heading for the world juniors in Canada and he highlighted his current wellbeing when he retained his senior boys’ 400m hurdles title in 52.80 secs and he was also third in the 400m flat.
Tim Crowe, whose father of the same name won a number of Irish titles in the 400m and 400m hurdles, was an impressive winner of the 400m which provided one of the most exciting finishes as he reeled in Joseph Dowling (Terenure College) who set a blistering pace in the first 200m with Maher closing from Lane 2.
Edmond O’Halloran (St Francis College, Rochestown) was foot-perfect at every hurdle as he coasted to a very impressive 14.54sec victory in the senior boys’ 110m hurdles.
Ryan Creech (Glanmire Comm) toyed with the field early on before racing away to a comprehensive victory in the senior boys’ 5,000m in 15:18.56 despite tendonitis which almost kept him out of the race.
Joan Healy (Coláiste na Toirbirthe, Bandon) avenged defeat in the 200m when she sprinted to a fine win over Stephanie Creaner (Inst of Education) in the senior girls’ 100m in 12.27 secs.
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