An unforgettable two-day spell was experienced by Irish athletics graced by shining performances. On Sunday night, within the walls of Stadio Olimpico, Ciara Mageean brilliantly displayed exceptional skill and tenacity to secure the 1,500m gold. This win placed her among the illustrious Irish mixed 4x400m relay team – consisting of Chris O’Donnell, Rhasidat Adeleke, Thomas Barr, and Sharlene Mawdsley – marking her as the third Irish gold medallist at the European Athletics Championships, a legacy of 90 years. She follows Sonia O’Sullivan’s legacy, who has to her name three golds, won in 1994 and another two in 1998.
Mageean and the dynamic Irish relay team also managed to earn a position in the esteemed list of winners, previously holding only ten individual names. Mageean’s recent win was the second European medal for Barr, after securing bronze in the 400m hurdles in 2018, and a third for Mageean herself, making her the first Irish athlete to secure gold, silver, and bronze at the European Championships.
Ciara Mageean: 1,500m, City of Lisburn AC, Coach Helen Clitheroe
Mageean, 32, from Portaferry has shown remarkable dedication to major championships over the past decade. Her popularity is a testament to her relentless competitive spirit. Mageean was seen by some as potential successor of Sonia O’Sullivan since her successful junior days. Although this comparison came with extra expectations, she considered it a tremendous honour.
Mageean’s journey was not entirely smooth; she tackled several challenges, notably a critical foot injury during her transition from junior to senior ranks. Her late coach Jerry Kiernan played a pivotal role in helping her steer through this challenging phase.
Aware of the requirements to secure a place on the medal podium, Mageean arrived in Rome already a seasoned competitor, particularly over the nearly four-lap distance. She had secured silver in Munich two years prior, and bronze back in 2016. Having previously missed out on a medal, finishing fourth in 2018, behind Britain’s Laura Muir, the pressure was on.
In Rome, Mageean executed an impeccable performance demonstrating tactical middle-distance racing skills. She edged past her rivals in the final stretch, securing the gold in a time of 4:04.66 seconds, ahead of Britain’s Georgie Bell. This victory was indeed a testament to Mageean’s determined and competitive spirit.
Currently located in Manchester, training with the New Balance group, Mageean has an impressive record. She has achieved a bronze medal at the 2019 European Indoor Championships, held in Glasgow, a 2022 Commonwealth Games silver medal representing Northern Ireland, and a silver from the 2010 World Under-20 Championships. All of these recognitions were for the 1,500m distance, making her the second-highest decorated Irish long-distance runner, surpassed only by O’Sullivan.
Sharlene Mawdsley, a 4x400m relay competitor from Newport AC, is coached by Gary Ryan. Mawdsley’s recent one-lap efforts in the Bahamas seemed to predict her future successes in Rome. Hailing from Newport, Tipperary, she was pivotal in leading both the mixed and women’s 4x400m relay teams to Olympics qualification and subsequently bronze medals in the mixed finals. Her exceptional 49.40-second anchor leg ensured Ireland’s gold medal victory.
As a 25-year-old, Mawdsley later secured her individual 400-metre qualification for the Paris Olympics last month. She improved her personal best from 51.09 to 50.72 when she took first-place at the Memoriał Janusza Kusocinskiego meeting in Chorzow, Poland. With a time of 50.72, she easily beat the 50.95 automatic qualification mark for Paris, placing her second on the list of Ireland’s fastest runners, behind Adeleke and ahead of ex-Irish record holder, Joanne Cuddihy.
Mawdsley’s accomplishments also reflect the successful coaching of Gary Ryan, a two-time Olympian from Tipperary who participated in the Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 Olympics. Ryan began training Mawdsley in 2018, at a time when her career seemed to be faltering.
A graduate from the University of Limerick, Mawdsley was fuelled by the injustice of her disqualification from the World Indoors in Glasgow, which occurred in the previous March. During the previous year in Budapest, she reached the semi-finals of the 400m World Championship and led both the mixed and women’s 4x400m relay teams to their respective final rounds.
Thomas Barr, another 4x400m relay runner from Ferrybank AC, is trained by coaches Hayley and Drew Harrison.
The Irish athlete Barr has secured his legendary status with a gold medal win in Rome. As he turns 32 next month, just two days before the commencement of the Paris Olympics, it marks eight years since he ran his fastest 400m hurdles in a record time of 47.97 seconds. Despite being just .05 seconds off bronze, he finished fourth at the Rio Olympics. This impressive performance was followed by him earning bronze at the 2018 European Championships in Berlin.
However, his fortune hasn’t been consistently favourable. During the delayed 2021 Tokyo Olympics, he missed the final round by hitting a late hurdle, but still achieved his second fastest time of 48.26. His luck ran similar at the recent European Championships in Munich, where he again missed the final by one position. An unfortunate calf muscle tear in July, after securing his 11th national title in Santry, forced him to withdraw from his fifth consecutive World Championships in Budapest.
In preparation for Tokyo, Barr solely focused on hurdles after assisting in the mixed relay qualification. This season, however, he re-engaged with the mixed relay in anticipation of the World Relays in the Bahamas. Last Friday, he ran the fastest split of his life at 44.90 on the third leg. Contemplating that this may be his final season, Barr is using this as motivation to give his utmost and end on a high note.
On another note, Rhasidat Adeleke, a member of 4x400m relay and Tallaght AC, coached by Edrick Floreal, is also noteworthy. After shattering nearly every Irish sprint record in junior levels, she moved on to break senior records. At just 20, she ran 49.20 for the 400m last year, granting her the prestigious NCAA title. This feat complemented her status as the fastest Irish woman for 200m and 400m.
Adeleke initially rose to prominence with Tallaght AC. By age 14, she had already won a junior sprint double at the Irish Schools Championships for Presentation College, Terenure in 2017.
Hailing from Dublin, she is the daughter of Ade and Prince, Nigerian immigrants. She joined the University of Texas in 2021 and recently completed her undergraduate studies in Corporate Communications. She has achieved impressive feats in her athletic career-before setting American collegiate records, she won several age-level medals. These include golds in the 100m and 200m at the European Under-20 Championships in Tallinn in 2021, the European Youth Olympics in Baku in 2019, and the European Under-18 Championships in Gyor in 2018 in the 200m event. Currently under contract with Nike, she helped Ireland secure a bronze at the World Relays in Bahamas with the fastest ever split time of 48.45 seconds. Subsequently, she added her first senior gold medal to her tally.
Chris O’Donnell originating from Grange, a small village in County Sligo- the same as Olympian swimmer Mona McSharry, has found his groove in the 400m this year after his performance was hindered due to an injury last year. Now 26, O’Donnell is a five-time 400m champion in Ireland, starting his sports journey with multiple football teams, including Benbulben FC and the Sligo-Leitrim Youth Schoolboys League. At just 16, he shifted his focus to one-lap running on noticing his natural speed during his football games. He set an under-20 national record with a finish time of 46.54 seconds in the European Under-20 Championships in 2017. His current personal best of 45.26 seconds places him jointly second in the Irish all-time records, trailing only David Gillick. O’Donnell obtained a degree in Sport and Exercise Science on a sports scholarship at Loughborough University, England, where he currently resides.
At the Tokyo Olympic games, one athlete from Ireland was part of the 4x400m mixed relay that advanced to the final. After assisting in securing a gold medal for his country on Friday evening, the athlete managed to run the individual 400m in his season’s best time of 45.69 the next morning with only an hour of rest. Dusting off his weariness, he reached the semi-final.
Below is a list of winners from Ireland in the European Athletics Championships:
In 1958, Ronnie Delany came third in the 1500m race with a time of 3.42.3. Eleven years later, Frank Murphy claimed silver in the 1500m, clocking 3.39.51. In 1978, Eamonn Coghlan also brought home a silver medal in the 1500m, recording a time of 3.36.57.
Sonia O’Sullivan had quite a fruitful career, winning the gold medal in the 3,000m race (8.31.84) and the 5,000m race (15.06.50) in 1994 and 1998 respectively. She also topped the 10,000m race in 1998, with a time of 31.29.33. Four years later, she clinched silver in both the 5,000m and 10,000m races, recording times of 15.14.85 and 30.47.59 respectively.
In 2006 and 2010, Derval O’Rourke claimed silver in the 100m hurdles with times of 12.72 and 12.65 respectively. In 2010, Robert Heffernan secured a bronze in the 20km walk, completing it in 1.21.00.
2014 saw Mark English winning bronze in the 800m race with a time of 1.45.03. Two years later, Ciara Mageean won the same medal in the 1500m race with a time of 4.33.78. She improved in 2022, as she claimed silver in the same event with a time of 4.02.56. In the same year, Mark English bagged a bronze medal in the 800m race, clocking 1.45.19.
In 2018, Thomas Barr secured bronze in the 400m hurdles, recording a time of 48.31. Lastly, in the 2024 games, the team consisting of Chris O’Donnell, Rhasidat Adeleke, Thomas Barr, and Sharlene Mawdsley won the gold medal in the 4x400m relay with a time of 3.09.92.
“In 2024, Ciara Mageean took the gold medal in the 1,500m race, clocking in at 4.04.66.”