Ciara Mageean breaks Parkrun world best in Belfast

The 31-year-old clocked 15:13 for 5km at Victoria Park in Belfast. That brought her home third in the overall standings, one second clear of her boyfriend, Thomas Moran.

PARK LIFE: Ciara Mageean breaks THE Parkrun world best in Belfast. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

They say the Parkrun isn’t a race, but try telling that to Ciara Mageean, who this morning blitzed her way to the fastest time ever run by a woman at the event.

The 31-year-old clocked 15:13 for 5km at Victoria Park in Belfast, a world Parkrun best.

That brought her home third in the overall standings, one second clear of her boyfriend, Thomas Moran. While Mageean was using it as a training exercise, the performance signals her preparations for the Paris Olympics are going well, given her previous best for 5km was the 15:24 she ran in Bath back in April.

Her last competitive outing came in mid-September at the Diamond League final in Oregon.

Parkrun, now in its 20th year, takes place at more than 2000 locations in 22 countries each Saturday morning, and it’s promoted “as a timed run rather than a race”. The previous Parkrun record was held by Britain’s Melissa Courtney-Bryant, who clocked 15:31 last December.

The run closes out a fine year for Mageean, who set Irish records at 800m, 1500m and the mile over the summer along with finishing fourth in the world 1500m final.

Earlier this week she was named BBC Northern Ireland Sports Personality of the Year. The news of that award was delivered remotely by Olympic champion and world record holder Faith Kipyegon of Kenya, who told Mageean in a video message: “Congratulations on your wonderful season. You should be proud of yourself.”