Record Breaking Ciara Mageean Does It Again

The Portaferry woman set new figures of 4 mins 00.15 secs to take over a second off her own record and get ever closer to Sonia O’Sullivan’s long standing Irish record of 3.58.85.

It was appropriate that the 27 year old double European medallist should achieve this in one of the greatest 1,500m races of all time where there were 4 National records. In addition the winner Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, who earlier this week had captured the 10,000m record crossed the line for gold in an astonishing time of 3.51.95 which is the 5th fastest of all time.

Ciara knew in the first lap that the entire field of 12 would be tested by a world class pace. The first 400m were covered in 63 secs with Mageean at the rear of the field. The pace did not slacken with 2 laps covered in 2 mins 6 secs.

Ciara was determined to retain contact and made a valiant effort to pass runners in the final 200m. She crossed the line in 10th just behind Morocco’s Sub 4 mins runner Rababe Arafi. The finish list displayed a huge plethora of personal best times.

This was yet another dream race for Ciara following her qualification for the final which was the first ever by a NI woman. The overjoyed City of Lisburn AC woman said: 

“I am 10th in the World and for a wee girl from Portaferry that’s not bad. When Hassan came round to lead the race I knew we were all in for a treat. I hung on and gave it everything on the last lap. I went after every vest that I could.”

“I was a bit stressed but I knew I was in personal best time form. I am looking for more medals from this sport. I have been overwhelmed by the support I have received from Irish people here and Athletics NI.

I am taking just a few days off and will go to Portaferry before restarting my training. Roll on the Tokyo Olympics next year.”

Clonliffe Harriers’ Stephen Scullion also had a terrific race in the Men’s Marathon on Saturday night, which was the first Men’s midnight marathon. The conditions were slightly less humid than at the Women’s Marathon earlier in the week, however it was still hitting around 32 degrees along the famous Corniche, with the lights of the city in the background.

Stephen hit the 5k mark in 16:49 and 67^th place, and gradually moved up through the race. At the 10k mark he was in 64^th position at 33:33.

At the Half Marathon distance he had retained the 64^th place in a time of 1:10.36. By the 35k mark he was in 45^th place in 2hr 14mins and 13secs.

Stephen completed the race in 2:21.31 to finish in 43^rd place, after an extremely challenging race.

Full results available here