Ciara Mageean fit and fresh for Olympic bid after injury impedes indoor season

The Irish star missed virtually all the indoor campaign last season.

ON YOUR MARKS: Ciara Mageean was launching the Flogas campaign 'Energy Behind the Athletes', designed to amplify support for Team Ireland athletes, and the launch of a docuseries on March 14th offering an intimate look into Team Ireland, the clubs and communities that inspire them. Pic: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Ciara Mageean is hoping that history can repeat itself having sat out the majority of the indoor athletic season with injury.

The Portaferry woman missed virtually all the indoor campaign last season because of a torn tendon but went on to finish fourth in the 1500m at the World Championships in Hungary with an Irish record.

She soon followed that up with another national best, this time of 3:55.87, in a Diamond League meet and finished 2023 having been named Irish athlete of the year.

Now, here she is again, looking ahead to an even bigger season that will peak at the Paris Olympics having missed the indoor swing due to a hamstring problem picked up at a Parkrun in Belfast a few months ago.

As omens go, it’s not the worst.

“Yeah, so it’s not bad, is it? I had a good summer last year, so maybe if I just follow the exact same trend… “I would have rather to not tweak a hamstring but I’m back training now. The only thing I’m feeling is that I’m not as fit as I’d like to be, that’s a good place. But the hamstring is feeling great, touch wood!” 

Though injured, Mageean still managed to finish that Parkrun in a world record time of 15:13 for the 5km in Victoria Park. This despite easing off for a few miles when she felt the tweak.

Impressive stuff.

Problem was that it resurfaced when she made for an altitude training camp in Flagstaff, Arizona the far side of Christmas and that inevitably curtailed the work she was able to out down Stateside.

“So I got an MRI out there, thankfully it was nothing crazy bad. I work with a great sports doc in Manchester, chatting to John, sent the scans, and he was like ‘the year that’s in it, I would advise you to take a bit of downtime time, and we’ll be conservative in our approach back, because there’s too much at stake in the summer’.

“Ultimately that made my decision to put a halt on indoor season, which was disappointing, because I was in really good shape.” 

The original plan had been to nip up the road from her base in Manchester and run the 300m at last week’s World Indoors in Glasgow. It wasn’t to be, but bigger days lie ahead this summer and she’s starting from familiar ground.