European redemption for gutsy Mageean

The smile said it all — a bright, bleary-eyed grin, Ciara Mageean’s eyes close to tears for reasons of a very different kind to what we had seen before.

These were tears of joy, a welcome contrast to those we saw her shed in torrents at this event in 2017, when Mageean stepped off the track midway through the 1500m final in Belgrade a broken athlete – in many ways.