Ciara Mageean (UCD AC) made a return to top class athletics with a second place finish in the elite mile at the Great City Games in Newcastle. In only her second race back after a long period off due to injury Mageean showed her class by battling with some of the World’s best metric milers.
Home favourite Laura Muir made the decisive move with a little over 200m remaining with Mageean showing real grit and determination to pass athlete after athlete to finish a fine second place in a time of 4.35.47. The race was won by Muir of Scotland in a time of 4.34.84.
John Travers (Donore Harriers AC) bounced back from a disappointing performance at the European Championships to place a solid seventh in the men’s mile in a time of 4.03.68. The race was won by Homyu Tesfaye of Germany in a time of 4.00.92.
Brussels & Rieti
A number of Ireland’s top track athletes were in search of fast end of season times as they competed in the Brussels Diamond league meeting on Friday (5th September) and the Rieti Grand Prix (7th September).
Paul Robinson (St Coca’s AC) began his busy weekend with an attack on the Irish 1,000m record in Brussels. The record he was chasing was 2.17.48 which is held by David Mathews and has stood since 1996. Robinson gave it his all in a very fast race however he just missed the record finishing in tenth place in a time of 2.18.46.
Robinson then moved on to race in Rieti on Sunday over 1500m however it proved a race too many for him as he struggled home in 13th in a time of 3.45.23.
Another athlete gunning for a record was European Bronze Medallist Mark English (UCD AC) as he targeted Mathew’s 800m record of 1.44.82. English ran an encouraging first 200m however the pace slipped over the next 200m and despite his best efforts over the second lap English finished seventh in a time of 1.45.71.
English will have one more attempt on the record as he competes for Europe in the Continental Cup which takes place in Marrakesh from the 13th-14th of September.
Brian Gregan (Clonliffe Harriers AC) was also competing in Rieti as he dropped down in distance to race over 300m. Gregan finished in seventh place in a time of 32.85 seconds; the time moved him to second on the Irish All Time lists behind Paul Hession’s national record of 32.47.