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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Oisin Doherty

Ciara Mageean smashes 1500m Irish National record at Diamond League event

Ciara Mageean has smashed Sonia O'Sullivan's 1500m National record and defeated arch rival Laura Muir at tonight's Diamond League meeting in Brussels.

Mageean ran a career best 3.56.63 to just edge Muir of Great Britain, who finished second in a time of 3.56.86.

It was a masterful performance from Mageean who hung back in fourth position until the beginning of the final lap. From that point on the county Down native ate up the ground and powered past Diribe Weltej of Ethiopia.

The Commonwealth silver medalist led with a hundred metres to go, but Muir kicked with everything she had to try and reel the irish star in.

It wasn't enough however and Muir, who beat Mageean for gold at both the Commonwealth games and European Championships this summer, had to settle for second place against the magnificent Mageean.

In winning the event, Mageean not only ran under four minutes for the very first time in her career, she obliterated Sonia O'Sullivan's long standing 1500m record by a whopping two seconds.

O'Sullivan's record had stood since July 1995, when the future Olympic Silver medalist ran a time of 3.58.85 at the Herculis meet in Monaco. In fact, O'Sullivan was in attendance for Mageean's historic moment and took to Twitter to pay tribute to the 30-year-old.

"Congratulations Ciara Mageean winning Brussels Diamond league 1500m and new Irish record," began O'Sullivan's tweet.

"Old record nearly as old as Ciara is young .

"Great to be in the stand to witness such a great race by Ciara who has had a great season and was not afraid to lose tonight"

Mageean had had a magical summer on the track and last night's big win is a shock to no-one. Over the past few weeks, she has picked up two silver medals at major international championships, and this win puts the icing on the cake on what has been a brilliant season.

It hasn't always been smooth sailing for Mageean both on and off the track. The Irish star has battled with nerves on the biggest stages in the past and has struggled with injury at times during her career.

The loss of her former coach and close friend Jerry Kiernan coupled with persistent calf issues hampered Mageean and severely impacted her ability to perform at last years Olympics.

All that seems to be behind the 30-year-old and she has now well and truly cemented her spot as one of the top 1500m athletes in the world.

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