English and Mageean to highlight GloHealth National Indoor Championships
UCD's Mark English and Ciara Mageean will headline the GloHealth National Senior Indoor Championships this weekend at the AIT International Arena in Athlone.
The championships will have a one hour highlights package on RTÉ2 on Sunday evening at 8pm and you can keep up to speed with the live results here.
English is a late addition to the championships with the 800m star having one eye on the World Indoor Championships in Portland, Oregon on March 17th-20th.
The UCD medical student set an Irish indoor best over 500m of 60.83 seconds in Stockholm and was narrowly outside his national indoor 800m record of 1:46.82 when he finished second in Glasgow in 1:46.99 last Saturday (February 20th).
Despite not having the world indoor qualifying time of 1:46.50 he is still potentially eligible to compete. National governing bodies are allowed to send one female and one male to the world indoors if none have achieved qualifying standards. With no male qualifiers to date, Athletics Ireland is entitled to send one as result.
English will be the favourite to win his fourth national 800m title with Kieran Kelly (Raheny Shamrock), who has made big strides this indoor season running 1:48.82, looking like his closest challenger.
Ciara Mageean has been the star of the indoor season setting two national indoor records over the 1500m and the mile respectively. The Down native has been in exciting form as she builds towards the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. She ran 4:08.66 in Dusseldorf for a new 1500m record and then finished sixth in the women’s Wannamaker mile in 4:28.40 to erase Roisin McGettigan’s 4:30.06 set back in 2009 in Boston. She looks set to compete over 800m where she has a season's best of 2:04.90 but is also down for the 1500m. She won’t compete at the world indoors though as she is focusing on the outdoor season. Rose-Anne Galligan (Newbridge) has the 1500m qualifying time and intends to compete in Portland but looks unlikely to be in Athlone.
Robert Heffernan (Togher) is down for the 5km walk but looks most likely to compete in France this weekend instead.
Athletics Ireland High Performance Director Kevin Ankrom is looking forward to the championships with some headline names competing. "Our national championships is a very good competition amongst our athletes," said Ankrom. "We've got some good healiners there with Mark English, Ciara Mageean and John Travers. It's the first step towards the outdoor season and I wish all our athletes the best of luck."
The sprints look set to be exciting this year with Jonathan Browning (Ballymena and Antrim), Craig Lynch (Shercock) and Marcus Lawler (St Laurence O'Toole) amongst those looking to win the 60m title. Lawler hasn't quite gotten his 60m into full gear this indoor season and will be looking to put that right. He has impressed over 200m and will be the favourite for the one lap event.
Phil Healy (Bandon) will look to complete a 60m and 200m double in the women's sprints. Amy Foster (City of Lisburn), the fastest over 60m this season with 7.33 seconds, isn’t down to compete.
The 400m could provide some great battles. In the women's race Jenna Bromell (Emerald) and Christine McMahon (Ballymena and Antrim) could renew their rivalry. Bromell beat McMahon for the University title and has also set a national junior record of 54.19 seconds this indoor season. In the men's race Andrew Mellon (North Down) looks like the favourite but will face the Crusaders pair of Richard Morrissey and Jason Harvey amongst others.
John Travers (Donore Harriers) is fresh from a sub 4 minute mile and is entered in the 1500m and 3,000m as is Eoin Everard (Kilkenny City Harriers) - the man most likely to rival him. Laura Crowe (An Riocht) is one of the leading women in the 1500m and will be looking for national glory. Olympic steeplechase qualifiers Sara Treacy (Dunboyne) and Kerry O'Flaherty (Newcastle) are down for the 3,000m.
There looks to be an exciting tussle in the men’s 60m hurdles with Ben Reynolds (North Down) set to take on Gerard O’Donnell (Carrick on Shannon). Reynolds may produce some magic and get towards the world indoor qualifying time of 7.72. Likewise in the women’s 60m hurdles, Sarah Lavin (UCD) could potentially produce a trump card and get towards the qualifying standard of 8.14. It would need a perfect race, having run 8.25 seconds to date, but is within her compass.
In the field events Michaela Walsh (Swinford) and Sean Breathnach (Galway City Harriers) are the outstanding favourites in the shot put. Walsh most recently set a national junior record of 14.39m at the Connacht Championships with Breathnach having a best of 17.83m this season.
Adam McMullen (Crusaders) is another to have impressed this indoor season and will look to go closer to 7.90m, and beyond, in the men's long jump as he bids to retain his national title. Sarah McCarthy (Mid Sutton), also entered in the 200m, will be the favourite in the women’s long jump while Sarah Buggy (St Abban’s) will be among those looking to make their mark in the women’s triple jump. Prolific competitor Niall Counihan (Dooneen) will be looking to bag the men’s triple jump crown.
Emily Rogers (St Peter's) and Grace O’Rourke (DSD) are the leading entrants in the women's High Jump, both having jumped 1.70m already this year. In the absence of Barry Pender (St Abban’s), Andrew Heney (Clonliffe Harriers) looks set to lead the title challenge in the men's High Jump having already cleared 2.00m this year.
Raheny Shamrock’s Fanni Juhasz leads the women’s pole vault entries with a best of 4.00m this season while Clonliffe Harriers pair David Donegan and Ian Rogers will duke it out with West Waterford’s Thomas Houlihan.
Timetable HERE
Live results and entries HERE
Performance list HERE
Indoor Roll of Honour list HERE
