PB for Mageean ranks her 7th in World Junior list

European Junior Junior 1500 metres silver medallist Ciara Mageean provided further evidence at the weekend of her sheer class when she sliced three quarters of a second off her 800 metres PB to record a time of 2 mins 2.31 secs in a mixed sex Irish Milers race at the Mary Peters Track.

This time ranks her 2nd fastest in Europe and 7th on the World Junior lists.It is also the fastest by a NI athlete in 13 years and is only half a second slower than Amanda Crowe's NI record of 2.01.83 achieved in the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpar.

Ciara's run makes amends for her nightmare experience in the Irish Champs a week ago where a misjudged first lap of 57.5 secs resulted in the 19 year old losing the race in the final few strides. However this time round an ideal first lap of 60 secs set Mageean up for a battling second lap against good male runners which resulted in her super fast time behind winner Josh Lowry of North Down who also set a PB of 2.00.74.

Afterwards Ciara said she was delighted with her run which confirmed her view that she had become a stronger athlete after her experiences in recent days.

The Portaferry woman is clearly now at the racing fitness level she achieved a year ago when she took the World Junior silver medal over 1,500 metres. She may now race over 1,500 metres in the BMC final at Birmingham this weekend. There were several other competitive races at Upper Malone the closest being the Men's 1,500 metres where Raheny's David Rooney won by a whisker in 3.44.17 from Metro's John Coughlan.

17 year old Andrew Monaghan of Lagan Valley excelled with his second PB in a week of 3.53.42.A total of 13 athletes broke the 4 mins barrier. The "A" 800 metres was also a keenly fought affair with Letterkenny's Danny Mooney getting the better of City of Derry's Conor Bradley in a time of 1.51.75.

In the 200 metres Steven Colvert of Crusaders just failed to get the "B" standard for the World Champs at the end of the month. His 21.10 secs clocking was 0.4 secs outside the necessary time. Photos will follow on Monday and results available.