Fighting fourth for Mageean
Ciara Mageean (UCD) was a fighting fourth in the women’s 1500m final in 4:04.63 with a gritty run that saw her just miss out on a medal on the final night of action at the European Athletics Championships in Berlin (August 12th).
“I’m bitterly disappointed but it was a good tough run,” said Mageean afterwards. The race was won by the heavy favourite Laura Muir (Great Britain & Northern Ireland) in 4:02.32.
Mageean was where she needed to be in the home straight and was just held off by Poland’s Sofia Ennaoui in second in 4:03.08 and Great Britain’s Laura Weightman in third in 4:03.75.
“It’s so disappointing but it’s given me a good boost for the years ahead running in the green, white and gold and I’m more determined than ever.”
It was also a bittersweet fourth for the women’s 4x100m relay team, , Phil Healy, Joan Healy (both Bandon), Ciara Neville (Emerald) and Gina Akpe-Moses (Blackrock-Louth), in their semi-final where they set a national record of 43.80.
The time was the fastest time never to make a European women’s 4x100m final in history and ranked them 9th overall. The team were naturally disappointed but excited about the future with such a good squad and two U20s in Ciara Neville and Gina Akpe-Moses as part of the line-up.
“Of course we are disappointed but there’s so much to build on,” said Phil Healy afterwards who completed her fifth race of the championship.
It rounded out a good championships for Ireland which, of course, included Thomas Barr's (Ferrybank) bronze medal but also a host of top 16 performances, season's bests, personal bests and a national record.
