Ciara Mageean happy that her plan is coming to fruition

Mageean bypassed the World Championships to save herself for the Commonwealth Games and Europeans. A silver was collected in the former and she goes in the 1500m final tonight in the latter

CONFIDENT: Ireland's Ciara Mageean. Pic: INPHO/Tom Maher

Ciara Mageean’s goal is simple. “To be on that podium,” she says. “I want the tricolour on my shoulders this summer.” 

But the journey to that point is far from simple. In the 1500m final at the European Championships in Munich – which will go to the line at 7.45pm Irish time tonight – the 30-year-old faces a fiendishly tricky task if she is to take her first medal at this event since Amsterdam 2016, where she won bronze.

Her two chief threats in the race for gold are the women who led the field home in the last European final in 2018, Laura Muir of Britain and Sofia Ennaoui of Poland, a race in which Mageean was edged into fourth.

But she’s a different athlete now than she was then: stronger, fitter, and far more resilient. Mageean may be the fifth fastest in the field this year, but that’s a major underselling of her ability, given she hasn’t been in the kind of paced race that could see her threaten the four-minute barrier, a mark she looks capable of surpassing in her current form. 

Her targets have been about medals, with Mageean bypassing last month’s World Championships in Oregon to save herself for this month’s Commonwealth Games and Europeans.

The plan looks to be working, with Mageean winning silver in the Commonwealth final behind Muir earlier this month, beaming with pride as she carried the Northern Irish flag on the lap of honour. Now she wants to do the same for Ireland.

“It's all been sculpted and planned towards this,” she says. “I'm in much better shape than my times and my season's best would suggest.” Can she challenge Muir in the race for gold? While acknowledging the Briton’s greatness, Mageean adds that “nobody is unbeatable.” 

In her heat on Tuesday, Mageean ran one of the most composed, confident races of her career, positioning herself towards the front throughout and coasting into the final in second place, clocking 4:03.03. While not underestimating other threats, she knows Muir and Ennaoui are the two danger women tonight, having finished second and fifth respectively in this year’s world final.

“I’ve taken a close look at their races and Ennaoui ran very well at the Worlds, Muir is obviously a world-class athlete and she showed me that at Commonwealths,” says Mageean. “But I went out in that race with the aim of trying to win gold and I’ll do the same here.” 

Much of Mageean’s preparation focuses on her mindset, and she’ll spend significant time today rehearsing various scenarios that could unfold and how she’ll respond to them. 

“You always need to mentally prepare, it’s like going to war. You don’t go in there without putting your mind in the right place. You train all year putting your body in the right place so you have to look after that top two inches.” 

Mageean and Ennaoui will likely play a patient game, and it’s highly likely Muir will inject a huge surge on the penultimate lap. Success for Mageean will be defined by how she responds, measuring her energies with maximum efficiency, sating her competitive desire for gold while being aware that going too hard, too soon could sabotage a chance at a minor medal. 

When it comes to the story of her career, a silver or bronze would still constitute something major.

“You put yourself up there and if you don’t get gold, hopefully it’s silver,” she says. “If you don’t get silver, hopefully it’s bronze. But I believe I’m one of the best athletes in that field, and I’m going to go out and prove it.”