The Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman Award for June: Ciara Mageean (Athletics)
If winning a European gold medal is what ultimately helps secure Ciara Mageean her place in Irish athletics history, her magnificent way of delivering it also gave us one of the best sporting lines of the year so far.
“When I was getting a bit boxed in, I thought ‘Oh my God, I have all the legs left but nowhere to go’… But I didn’t grow up playing camogie to get boxed in.”
In the end, Mageean’s decisive kick for the gold medal was perfectly timed and utterly commanding, as she ripped to the front down the homestretch to win the European Championship 1,500m in the Stadio Olimpico on that memorably hot Sunday night in June.
Her season of course is far from finished yet, but that rare and majestic achievement has duly earned Mageean The Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman of the Month award for June.
Because exactly 48 hours after the mixed 4x400m relay team of Chris O’Donnell, Rhasidat Adeleke, Thomas Barr and Sharlene Mawdsley became only the second gold medal winners for Ireland in the now 90-year history of the European Championships, Mageean joined that super-elite list – after Sonia O’Sullivan, only our second individual gold medal winner in all.
[ Ciara Mageean: For me, Portaferry has always been on the mapOpens in new window ]
Few Irish athletes have been more dedicated to the big championship stage over the last decade than the 32-year-old from Portaferry – Mageean’s popularity ample evidence of her always-ferocious competitive spirit.
This was unquestionably one of her finest performances, as Mageean ultimately stamped her absolute authority on the field, affording herself a suitably delightful winning salute on the line.
Few if any championships finals are more consistently intriguing tactical affairs than these three and three-quarter lap showdowns, and Rome was no exception, Mageean producing an absolute masterclass to hit the front only when it mattered most, winning in 4:04.66 just ahead of Britain’s Georgia Bell, second in 4:05.33.
“I knew I had it in my legs,” Mageean later added, “and I was like, ‘I’m feeling good, I’m feeling good.’ It often opens up, and I was telling myself not to panic. The gap was going to come and I made sure when it was 100 metres to go I saw a little bit of light and I was like, ‘I’m going to take it’.”
And take it she did. The race stayed tightly bunched all the way to the bell, before the British duo of Bell and Jemma Reekie kicking hard down the backstretch, while Mageean still bided her time. Then around the final bend and into the homestretch, Mageean turned on her considerable style, dashing past the British duo. Agathe Guillemot from France also came through to take third, with Reekie fading to fifth in 4:06.17.
Mageean had made no secret of her ambition to step on top of the medal podium this time. She also knew already exactly what was required, winning silver two years ago in Munich, and bronze back in 2016.
[ Ciara Mageean makes latest breakthrough in 800m with sub-1:59 timeOpens in new window ]
She also knew what it’s like to miss out, having finished in fourth place back in 2018 behind Britain’s Laura Muir, before also finishing fourth at last year’s World Athletics Championships in Budapest.
Two weeks after Budapest, she improved her Irish 1,500m record again to 3:55.87, finishing second at the Brussels Diamond League to Laura Muir, who won in 3:55.34 – Mageean having first taken down that Irish record in 2022, a mark which had previously belonged to O’Sullivan since 1995 with her 3:58.85 time.
Indeed from her highly successful junior days, Mageean was tipped by some to follow in the footsteps of O’Sullivan, something she always considered a great honour, though that certainly created an extra layer of expectation. She’s also endured plenty of setbacks, including a severe ankle injury when coming out of the junior ranks, her late coach Jerry Kiernan carefully nurturing her through that difficult period.
Now based in Manchester with the New Balance training group, Mageean also boasts a European Indoor bronze from Glasgow in 2019, a Commonwealth Games silver for Northern Ireland from 2022, and a World Under-20 Championships silver from back in 2010 – all over the 1,500m distance, now making her the second most decorated Irish distance runner of all time behind O’Sullivan.
A month before Rome, Mageean had also improved her own 800m national record to 1:58.81, becoming the first Irish woman to break 1:59, when competing near her training base in Manchester neatly boosted her confidence too.
Although her 3:55.87 was the fastest of the 13-woman final in Rome (Muir had skipped the championships), she also showed nerves of steel to win out over whatever her rivals could throw at her.
Mageean also endured a somewhat nervous start to 2024, after missing the entire indoor season when her plan for a quick pre-Christmas blowout went a little wrong. She won the 5km parkrun at Victoria Park in Belfast last December 23rd – her 15 minutes and 13 seconds the then-fastest parkrun by a woman anywhere in the world – only she tweaked a hamstring in the process, sidelining her from training for several weeks.
She’s often admitted too she still takes considerable heart from the memory of her late coach Kiernan, who more than anyone else nurtured her through that difficult transition out of the junior ranks, when a troublesome bone spur in her ankle at times left her wondering might she ever make it back.
“Jerry was a very wise man like that,” she said of Kiernan, who died suddenly in January 2021 aged 67. “He gave me a lot of that faith in myself, especially now that I am running into my 30s.
“I believe too, all those tough years, dealing with injury, setback, not getting an Irish vest for a whole load of years – all that resilience I had to build up makes me the athlete I am today.”
Not for the first time, and perhaps not the last, Mageean is The Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman of the Month.
Previous monthly winners
December: Fionnuala McCormack (Athletics)
February: Mona McSharry (Swimming)
March: Rachael Blackmore (Horse racing)
