Mageean battles to European silver

CIARA MAGEEAN (City of Lisburn) kept Irish athletics in the headlines after winning silver in the 1,500m at the European junior track and field championships in Tallinn yesterday.

She rounded of another amazing championships for Irish athletes following on Brian Gregan’s 400m silver at the European U23 championships and walker Kate Veale’s gold medal in the World Youths at the start of July.

Amela Terzic (Serbia) claimed gold in 4:15.40 from Mageean, 4:16.82, with Iona Doaga (Romania) third in 4:20.73. Mageean was nevertheless disappointed: “I can’t say I’m truly satisfied since I went out to win the gold but I didn’t achieve my goal. The seasonal best doesn’t matter much because gold was my goal.”

However Liam Hennessy, President of Athletics Ireland praised the display. “This was another great day for Irish athletics. Ciara, herself, is disappointed but that was to be expected with the exceptional record that she has. But she did nothing wrong in the race. She gave herself every chance, put herself in a position to win it but she was just worn down by Terzic in the final 50 metres.”

The spotlight may have been on Mageean yesterday but, over the weekend, Thomas Barr (Ferrybank AC), a member of the Drew and Hayley Harrison husband wife coaching group smashed the Irish record twice before finishing fifth in the final of the men’s 400m hurdles to claim his share of the limelight.

After breaking the national junior record on Friday the 19-year-old Waterford man set another with a sizzling 50.07 for second place in his semi-final on Saturday — the second fastest time ever run by an Irishman. Yesterday he again ran under the old record when he finished sixth in the final in 51.02. His sister, Jessie, also broke the Irish U23 record en route to the women’s 400m hurdles final at the European U23 championships in Ostrava a week earlier.

The hard luck story of the weekend belonged to Mark English in the semi-finals of the men’s 800m when he was involved in a blanket finish. When the results went up on the scoreboard he was given second place in 1:50.76 but then it went to the photo finish camera and the young Letterkenny man was given fourth place in 1:50.77 which cost him automatic qualification.

Meanwhile Veale was in stunning form at the Woodie’s DIY juvenile championships in Tullamore on Saturday setting new Irish records for U18, Junior, U23 and senior in the 3,000m race walk. Her winning time of 12:18.86 knocked almost a minute off her junior record and almost 16 seconds off Gillian O’Sullivan’s senior time set in 2000. Shane Fitzsimons (Mullingar Harriers) was always well in control in the U17 1,500m, and his time of 4:00.41 was a new championship record, bettering the 4:02.0 of John O’Reilly set in 1978.