Ciara Mageean produces flying finish to win in Ostrava

Mageean was named among an initial squad selection of athletes with the A standard on Tuesday, with roughly 10 athletes with the B standard due to be added after European Athletics produces its final list of qualifiers via the rankings system on Wednesday.

FLYING FINISH: Ciara Mageean unleashed a superb finishing kick to lead home an Irish 1-2 at the Golden Spike meeting in Ostrava on Tuesday. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

Ciara Mageean unleashed a superb finishing kick to lead home an Irish 1-2 at the Golden Spike meeting in Ostrava on Tuesday, a Continental Tour Gold event. Mageean clocked 4:01.98 to win the 1500m ahead of Sarah Healy (4:02.12), with Britain’s Revee Walcott-Nolan third in 4:02.42.

Mageean was several metres behind, in seventh place, as Healy made her move to the front with 150 metres to go, but in her first 1500m race since last September, the Portaferry native produced an impressive change of gears to catch Healy in the last 40 metres. Mageean made a flying start to her season last weekend by smashing the Irish 800m record in Manchester, clocking 1:58.51.