Four months after winning a European Indoor bronze medal over 1,500m, Ciara Mageean opened her outdoor season with her second-fastest ever time over 800m, clocking 2:01.81 at the British Milers Club meeting in Watford.

Mageean finished fifth in what is short of her best distance. Síofra Cléirigh Büttner finished one spot ahead of her in fourth, the Dundrum South Dublin athlete running a new personal best of 2:01.67. Mageean is targeting the 1,500m at the World Championships in Doha in late September.

Sarah Healy from Blackrock also ran an impressive 2:04.66 at the same meeting, building towards next month’s European Under-20 Championships in Sweden, with Darragh McElhinney again setting a new Irish Under-20 record when winning the 3,000m in 8:01.47, the Bantry runner improving the old record of 8:04.48 set by Mark Christie back in 2004.

Also aiming for European Under-20 honours before switching full-time to rugby is Aaron Sexton from Bangor, who ran 20.79 to win the 200m in Mannheim, Germany, just short of his best of 20.69, still the top-ranked junior in Europe. Marcus Lawler from Carlow also ran a wind-aided 20.33 (+2.7) in La Chaux, France.