Ciara Mageean smashes Sonia O’Sullivan’s 1000m Irish record

File picture of Ciara Mageean

Ciara Mageean smashed the Irish 1000 metres record in Monaco on Friday night, carving three seconds off Sonia O’Sullivan’s 27-year-old mark to clock 2:31.06.

The 28-year-old finished third behind Olympic 1500m champion Faith Kipyegon of Kenya (2:30.82) and British star Laura Muir (2:30.82) in what was the best performance of her career.

O’Sullivan’s mark of 2:34.66 had stood since 1993, but on a warm night at the Herculis meeting Mageean came home well below that, powering to third just before the finish and past Britain’s Jemma Reekie.

It was a measure of Mageean’s run that world 800m champion Halimah Nakaayi finished two seconds behind her in fifth. It continues a fine start to the track season for Mageean. In Bern last month she opened her season with a national record over 800m, becoming the first Irishwoman in history to break two minutes with her 1:59.69.

Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei set a new 5,000m world record as heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson came sixth in the high jump at the Diamond League in Monaco.

Cheptegei finished the 5,000m in 12:35.36 to break a record that had stood for 16 years, set by Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele.

The race was also the 23-year-old’s first on the track of the season, with the majority cancelled or postponed amid the Covid-19 global pandemic.

Johnson-Thompson finished sixth in the high jump, with a height of 1.84m, far behind her personal best of 1.98.

The gold and silver medals went to Ukraine with Yaroslava Mahuchikh finishing first and Yuliya Levchenko just behind her compatriot.