Milestone for Ó Lionáird

There were two exciting new additions to Ireland’s illustrious list of sub four minute milers last night as seven athletes in all went under four minutes in the featured Morton Mile at the Clonliffe Harriers Grand Prix at Morton Stadium.

A thrilling mile was won by Geordan McNamara (USA) in a personal best of 3:56.83 from fellow American, Brandon Bethke, 3:57.44.

But it was Cork’s Ciaran Ó Lionáird (Leevale AC) who raised the biggest cheer of the night as he ran the race of his life to fill third place in 3:57.99 — his first ever sub 4 minute.

Ciara Mageean (City of Lisburn) won a blistering women’s 800m in a new pb of 2:03.21, from Laura Crowe (An Riocht) who followed her fine 1,500m in Cork a week earlier with a pb of 2:05.41 and 16-year-old Ciara Siofra Buttner (DSD) took her fledgling career to a new level with 2:06.67 for third place.

Mark English (Letterkenny AC) won the men’s 800m A race in 1:48.96 from Anthony Lieghio (Tallaght AC), 1:49.20, and Brian Kelly (St. Abbans) 1.49.53 while Jason Smyth had a sprint double, winning the 100m in 10.39 secs and the 200m in 20.94.