Drumm beats Euro star Mageean to claim 1500m crown

While some fine early season sprinting and a number of exciting finishes were the highlights of the Leevale Track & Field meeting at Cork IT on Saturday, the big upset of the day came in the women’s 1500m, where European Junior silver medallist Ciara Mageean had to settle for second behind Orla Drumm.

In a disappointing field, just Drumm and Mageean faced the starter, with Leevale man Chris Harrington acting as pacemaker.

Drumm, who won the Irish indoor title at 1500m back in February, was clearly in better race shape as she comfortably sat on 20-year-old Mageean’s shoulder through a fast opening lap of 63 seconds. As the pace slowed in cold and windy conditions, the UCC athlete — a native of Doonen in Limerick and with a best of 4:14.08 — waited until the final 150m before moving away for an emphatic victory in 4:18.48.

Mageean had to settle for 4:21.61, well outside her fastest of 4:07.45.

“The conditions were tough and it was just me and Ciara,” said Drumm. “I’m going to California on Monday to race twice over 1500m in Mount Sac and Stanford in a bid to get the European qualifying time of 4:10.”

David Hynes (Menapians) had a fine sprint double and finishing second in both races was Marcus Lawler from Carlow, son of former Irish champion Patricia Almond. Lawler set an new Irish youth record of 21.56 for the 200m while his 10.75 in the 100m was just 200ths of a second outside the Irish best.

The most exciting race of the day came in the men’s 400m hurdles where Thomas Barr, Tim Crowe and Paul Byrne were neck and neck down the home straight before Barr of Ferrybank nudged it on the line by 100th of a second from Crowe, recording 53.21 in the windy conditions.

Sean Tobin from Clonmel impressed in the junior 1500m, clocking a pb of 3:51.06 while another junior athlete to shine was Sarah Lavin (Emerald) who won the 100m hurdles in 14.01, just outside the ‘A’ standard of 13.8 for the European juniors.

While her husband Robert Heffernan claimed fourth position in the men’s 20km in Portugal, Marian Andrews got her summer campaign off to a good start with a double in the 200m and 400m.

In the field events, host club Leevale took both long jump titles through David Quilligan and Jessica Sheehan while the evergreen Pat Moore, who won the first of his six national javelin titles 40 years ago, took that event with a throw of 40.52.