Ciara Mageean has revealed her utter devastation at having to pull out of the women’s 1,500m heats at the Olympics due to an injury. Her chronic Achilles tendon issues which have been troubling her for the past few weeks have forced the European Champion to withdraw from the event, much to her disappointment.
The news was officially announced by Team Ireland on Monday evening. In the run-up to the Paris Olympic games, Ciara had been grappling with the ongoing Achilles pain. Despite the exhaustive measures taken by Ciara and the Irish medical team, she will regrettably not be featuring in the competition on Tuesday morning.
The 32-year-old athlete, who hails from Co Down, had encountered a similar setback just a week before the Tokyo competition- a calf injury had hampered her performance and prevented her from advancing beyond the heats.
However, Mageean has repeatedly demonstrated her resilience. In 2022, she clinched a silver medal in the 1,500m event at the European Championships and Commonwealth Games. She followed this up with a spectacular gold medal win in Rome in June, thus securing all European medals. Mageean’s accomplishment marked only the second individual gold medal for Ireland, following Sonia O’Sullivan.
This year, Mageean also reinstated her position as the Irish 800m record holder, registering a time of 1:58.51. Last summer, she had bettered her own Irish 1,500m record, clocking 3:55.87. She had finished fourth in the World Championships held in Budapest the previous year.
However, her dreams of potentially securing another medal in Paris have now been quashed due to this unfortunate injury.
On Tuesday morning at 9.05 Irish time, Ireland will cheer on two more female athletes competing in the 1,500m heats. The young 22-year-old, Sophie O’Sullivan will step up to her maiden Olympic challenge in the initial heat, running shoulder to shoulder with competitors such as Laura Muir from the UK. Alongside her, Sarah Healy is also launching her Olympic career in the subsequent heat, facing current title-holder, Faith Kipyegon.