Ciara Mageean produced the run of her life on the biggest of stages stage last night, breaking her own Irish record with a stunning 3:56.61 to finish in 4th place in the 1500m final at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest.
The Portaferry athlete, who was ranked ninth on her season’s best, ran a tactically superb race to put herself right in contention for a medal at the bell in what arguably can be classed as one of the greatest 1500m fields ever to take to a world final.
Mageean went with the leading athletes in the race defining move with 300m to go but ultimately could not reel in the front three of Faith Kipyegon (KEN) 3:54.87, Diribe Welteji (ETH), 3:55.69, and Sifan Hassan (NED) 3:56.00.
“To be honest, to be disappointed with 4th is probably a good thing,” she said after the race.
“I came in with the aim of a medal because it’s the best I’ve ever felt coming into a championships. To come away with 4th is bittersweet but I’ve had the season of my life.”
“Many years ago I wouldn’t have dreamt of 4th at a global senior final and I’m standing her disappointed with 4th and a national record so I know I can do it.”
“It’s another year to the Olympics, and I’m putting myself in with a fighting chance with the best 1500m athletes in the world.”
“I ran the race perfectly and did the best I could so I’ll walk away with my head held high. The dream lives on and I’ve many races ahead of me next year and the year after.”
Today’s performance continues a remarkable period for the Irish record holder who has also picked up Commonwealth Games and European silver medals in the last 12 months.
Away from the 1500m final, Limerick’s Sarah Lavin safely secured her passage to today’s 100m hurdles semi-final with a blistering 12.69 Q to finish third in her heat.
Lavin will return to the track tomorrow evening at 7.40pm Irish time.
Mark English was hampered badly over the opening 400m of his 800m heat. The Finn Valley athlete ran a huge race to get back up for 4th place in a season’s best of 1:45:71 which secured his place in Thursday’s semi-final as one of the fastest non-automatic qualifiers.
John Fitzsimons (Kildare AC) went in the third of the 800m heats and while a brave run saw him close on the leaders over the final 50 metres, his 5th place finish in 1:48:20 was not enough to see the 2023 national champion progress.
Day 5 – Wednesday August 23rd
The women’s 400m final will headline Wednesday’s World Championship action from an Irish perspective with Tallaght’s Rhasidat Adeleke returning to the track for her first global senior final at 8.35pm.
Adeleke takes her place in the final having posted the fourth fastest time (49.87) in the semi-final behind podium challengers Natalia Kaczmarek (POL), Marileidy Paulino (DOM), and Sada Williams (BAR).
The 20-year-old NCAA champion has shown tremendous consistency this season and will likely need to challenge her national record of 49.20 (June 2023) if she is to hunt down another historic result tomorrow evening.
Tokyo Olympian Louise Shanahan will be first out on track for the Irish this morning, taking her place in the opening round of the 800m.
Shanahan has been drawn in a tough heat (4) which contains two of the top ten ranked athletes in Halimah NAkaayi (UGA) and Rénelle Lamote (FRA).
The Leevale athlete will be hoping to use all of last year’s European final experience to ‘sit and kick’ her way into one of the top three automatic qualifying places.
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