NI Athletes Head to Glasgow for the European Indoor Athletics Championships

Ciara Mageean will have a demanding weekend ahead, where she has been tipped as a potential medallist in a high powered 1,500m event. The 26 year old athlete has been enjoying her best indoor season ever which has included breaking her own Irish records over the 1 mile and 1,500m. In these races she has shown true maturity and judgement in dealing with some of the best athletes in the World.

Ciara takes the start line in her 1,500 metres heat on Friday evening at 7.10pm against Scottish heroine and current double European Champion, Laura Muir. Laura recently broke the British 1 Mile record and is the fastest in the field at under 4 mins 2 secs and is a firm favourite to retain her title. They will also be joined by European Outdoor Silver Medallist, Sofia Ennaoui from Poland and Germany’s Konstanze Klosterhalfen, who took silver in the Championships 2 years ago.

Ciara will be confident about at least making Sunday's final at 8.12pm, particularly as her Irish record time of 4 mins 6.76 secs ranks her 5^th fastest European this season from an entry of 30.

Round 1 of the Men’s 800m will be Friday night at 7.48pm and will include Annadale Strider's Conall Kirk who ran a recent Indoors PB of 1.48 95 and will be making his Senior debut at this level.

18 year old Finn Valley AC athlete, Sommer Lecky will also be making her Senior debut at 7.06pm on Friday night in the Women’s High Jump competition. The World Junior silver medallist recently equalled her Indoor PB of 1.86 metres when taking the Irish title. The event will include World class athletes such as, current World champion Mariya Lasitskene who has jumped 2.04 metres this year.

Another young up-and-coming athlete making her Senior Debut will be City of Lisburn AC’s Lauren Roy. The 18 year old will be competing in Round 1 of the Women’s 60m sprints at 11.13 am on Saturday morning.

The athletes will be joined by a number of Athletics NI Technical Officials who have been selected to officiate at the European Indoor Championships.

The officials travelling over to Glasgow will be Wendy Davis, Barbara Scott, Kurtis Scott, Joy Alexander and Pam Browne.

We would like to congratulate the officials on their selection and wish them and the athletes the best of luck for the weekend!

Athletes Schedules:

The full schedule of events can be found here.