Irish 800 metres record holder Cian McPhillips has cut short his indoor season and will not compete at next month’s World Indoor Championships in Torun, Poland.
McPhillips had raced only once indoors, blowing away the cobwebs and some world-class opposition when cruising to victory over 600m at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston at the end of January. In doing so he beat former World Champion Donovan Brazier from the US.
A week later, McPhillips withdrew from the Millrose Games 800m due to a dental issue which required medical attention, subsequently stalling his race preparations. With that it was decided along with his coach Joe Ryan to switch the focus towards the outdoor season.
The 23-year-old from Longford, who last September clocked 1:42.15 to finish fourth at the World Championships in Tokyo, finished 2025 the top-ranked European over 800m – his obvious focus this summer being the European Championships in Birmingham in August.
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European Indoor 3,000m champion Sarah Healy has also confirmed she is bypassing the indoor season completely. The 25-year-old won gold in Apeldoorn this time last year during a 36-minute spell which also saw Mark English win bronze in the 800m, and Kate O’Connor bronze in the pentathlon.
As a result, McPhillips and Healy will both be absent from this weekend’s National Indoor Championships at the Sport Ireland Arena in Abbotstown, although O’Connor will be making her first competitive appearance since winning the World Championships silver medal in the heptathlon in Tokyo, over five months ago.
Fresh from a warm-weather training camp in Portugal, O’Connor will compete in the 60m hurdles on Saturday, where she will have Sarah Lavin for company, before turning her attention to the long jump on Sunday afternoon.
O’Connor is currently ranked second in the qualifying quota for the World Indoor Championships, which are set for March 20th-22nd. O’Connor also won silver in the indoor pentathlon last year. Leading the qualification is Anna Hall from the US, who won gold in Tokyo last summer ahead of O’Connor.
English is also targeting Torun and is out to claim another National Indoor 800m title this weekend, having twice broken his own Irish record in recent weeks.
