Mageean’s Magic Moment

Before Ciara Mageean took to the track in Brussels in September last year, no Irish athlete had ever won a points-scoring victory in the Wanda Diamond League. 

Others such as Mark English had picked up victories at Diamond League meetings, but only in exhibition events. A Diamond Discipline victory – and the eight-point haul attached to it – had always eluded Ireland’s finest. 

Despite her recent silver medal at the European Championships in Munich, Mageean was hardly favourite to break that run when she arrived in Belgium. Ninth in the qualification standings, she was also up against a star-studded field which included the likes of two-time Diamond League champion Laura Muir, who had also pipped her to gold in Germany. 

At the bell, Mageean was stuck in fifth, the same place in which she had finished at her two previous Diamond League appearances of the season in Rome and Birmingham. With Diribe Welteji out in front and Muir doing her best to close the gap, the smart money seemed to be on the Ethiopian or the British star. 

Mageean, though, had other ideas. As she set off for the final lap, she surged forward, scything through the athletes in front of her one by one. She caught Muir on the back straight, edged ahead of Freweyni Hailu on the curve and finally stole her way past Welteji as she entered the home straight. 

Holding the lead despite a bold late surge from Muir, the 31-year-old crossed the line in 3:56.63, clocking a personal best and going under the four-minute barrier for the first time in her life. 

Not only that, she had also broken a 27-year-old Irish record previously held by former world champion and Olympic silver medallist Sonia O’Sullivan. 

I expected to run fast and I actually had the national record  on my mind,” said Mageean, but admitted that she had surprised even herself. “Before this race, I had never run under four minutes, so to run a time of 3.56.63 is something that blows my mind.”

“People say that in athletics and in life, every so often you havea day where you are completely in the zone. It doesn’t happen when you want to and you never know when it will happen. I can only say that this is how I felt today: I was in the zone and it felt like I was running on clouds.”