Mageean wins silver at World Youth Championships

Ireland's Ciara Mageean won a silver medal in today's 800 metres final at the IAAF World Youth Championships in Sudtirol, Italy.

The Portaferry girl, who only turned 17 in March, clocked a phenomenal new personal best of two minutes, 3.07 seconds to finish second to gold medallist Cherono Koech from Kenya, who set a new Championship record of 2:01.67.

In humid conditions, Britain's Rowena Cole secured the bronze with a PB of 2:03.83.

Speaking afterwards, a delighted Mageean said: "I came all this way to Italy to win a medal. I am more than happy! It is only the second medal for Ireland in the World Youth Championships' history.

"I was the fastest qualifier after the semi-finals despite going into the initial competition being the underdog.

"I'm really happy to get silver and a new PB, the pace was very quick but I was able to stick with it and this will give me a boost for the European Youths."

Mageean's time saw her lower the Irish junior record for the second time in a month-and-a-half. She broke Sonia O'Sullivan's 1987 record of 2:05.72 at the recent Irish Schools Championships, shaving three-tenths of a second off it.

Her excellent run in Sudtirol smashed that record, putting her on top of the 800m Irish senior rankings for 2009 by almost two seconds and into the top seven in the all-time list.

The City of Lisburn AC runner's silver medal is only the second medal Ireland have won at the highly-competitive World Youth Championships. Ann Loughnane was a silver medallist in the 5,000m walk back in 2003.

Mageean, who is coached by Eamonn Christie, also set a new 1500m PB (4:18.52) in a junior event in Mannheim, Germany last month.

After a short visit home, she will travel to Tampere in Finland to compete in the 1500m at the European Youth Olympics which begin next Saturday.