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Ciara Mageean smashes another Irish record in Monaco

Co Down runner broke national 1,000m record with ease at Diamond League meeting

File photo of Ciara Mageean from the Athlone International Athletics Grand Prix in February. Photo: Morgan Treacy/Inpho

Ian O'Riordan's face
Ian O'Riordan
Fri Aug 14 2020 - 21:23

Some records are there to be smashed, and Ciara Mageean was among those to do exactly that as Diamond League athletics resumed in Monaco on Friday night, taking over three and a half seconds off the Irish 1,000 metres record which was held for the last 27 years by Sonia O’Sullivan.

After becoming the first Irish woman to run sub-two minutes for 800m last month, Mageean took to the new track at the Stade Louis II with an eye on the 2:34.66 set by O’Sullivan at Villeneuve-d’Ascq back in 1993.

Though not a championship distance, the 1,000m does count for record purposes, and this turned out to be one of the fastest in history: reigning Olympic 800m champion Faith Kipyegon from Kenya took the win in 2:29.15, a national and African record, with Britain’s Laura Muir also running a new British record of 2:30.82 in second, Mageean finished equally fast to take third in 2:31.06, improving her own previous best of 2:38.89 by over seven seconds.

In doing so the 28-year-old from Down also took some considerable scalps, including that of reigning World 800m champion Halimah Nakaayi from Uganda, who took fifth in 2:32.12, and if anything slowed Mageean down the backstretch, forcing her to run wide, before also overtaking Britain’s Jemma Reekie around the final bend.

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It gives her a second Irish record in less than three weeks, her 1:59.69 in Bern last month bettering the 2:00.58 which had belonged to Rose-Anne Galligan since 2013, that time in turn bettering the 2:00.69 which had belonged to O’Sullivan since 1994.

That turned out to be one of many records smashed on the night, and none more breathtaking than the Joshua Cheptegei from Uganda, who clocked 12:35.36 for 5,000m, two seconds faster than any man in history, breaking Kenenisa Bekele’s mark of 12:37.35, which had stood to the Kenyan since 2004, the longest time for the men’s record in history.

However it seemed to come easy for Cheptegei, reigning World 10,000m and World Cross champion, who took the liberty of stopping his own stopwatch as he crossed the line.

There was also a 3:28.68 1,500m and a European record at age 19 for Jakob Ingebrigsten from Norway, who did have to settle for second place behind Kenya’s World champion Timothy Cheruiyot, who won in 3:28.45, with Britain’s Jake Wightman clocking 3:29.47 in third, smashing his personal record in the process.