Ciara Mageean, an athlete from Down, recently achieved yet another significant milestone in her career by setting a new Irish record for the 800m race. Mageean made history by becoming the first Irish woman to run under 1:59 for 800m, clocking 1:58.51, thus surpassing her previous record of 1:59.27 by over half a second. This outstanding performance was witnessed at the British Milers Club meet held in Manchester, where Mageean finished second, losing only to Phoebe Gill, a 17-year-old British prodigy who clocked 1:58.08.
Ciara Mageean, a 32-year-old native of Portaferry, also holds the Irish 1500m and one-mile records, which she improved last year. Her current form puts her well within the Paris Olympics qualifying benchmark of 1:59.30, however, it is unlikely that she will participate in both events in Paris.
In addition to Mageean, university runner Sarah Healy from UCD AC also competed in Manchester and finished fourth in the same race. The 23-year-old set a new personal best of 2:00.86, which placed her eighth in the overall Irish all-time list. Like Mageean, Healy has also qualified for the 1500m race in Paris.
Last summer Mageean bolstered her national 1500m record to 3:55.87 and the national mile record to 4:14.58. This latest performance in Manchester, her base for several years, is a promising sign of her future potential. Aside from the Paris Olympics, Mageean will also participate in the European Athletics Championships in Rome next month, where she previously claimed silver in the 1,500m race in Munich two years ago.