Ciara Mageean (UCD) produced a classy display to win the women’s 3,000m in 9:02.57 on the first day of the Irish Life Health National Indoor Championships at the Sport Ireland National Indoor Arena on Saturday.
It's ten years since Mageean won her first national indoor title over 1500m at the age of 16 and she went to the front from the gun.
It wasn’t long until Sara Treacy (Dunboyne) took over and helped push on the pace. It was clear the European indoor standard of 9:05.00 was the target.
There were races within the race with Sarah Healy (Blackrock) isolated and then Michelle Finn (Leevale) a little further adrift. It was Finn who brought Healy back up into contention.
Finn and Healy got within touching distance of Mageean but she pushed on as Treacy began to fade. The UCD runner pulled away with every lap to win comfortably while Finn broke Healy to finish second in 9:14.13. Healy was third in 9:24.48.
In the race walks, Kate Veale (West Waterford) and Alex Wright (Leevale) won as expected. Veale took the women’s 3,000m race walk in 13:18.39 while Wright prevailed in the men’s 5,000m race walk in 18:53.87.
In the field events, Ruby Millet (St Abban’s) won the women’s long jump in a new national Under-20 indoor record of 6.20m. It was an excellent performance and bodes well for the summer where she will target the European Under-20 Athletics Championships.
Sommer Lecky (Finn Valley) came out on top after an exciting duel in the women’s high jump with Phillipa Rogan (Sli Cualann).
Lecky shaded it with a clearance of 1.86m, a season’s best, with Rogan clearing 1.83m. Ciara Kennelly (Killarney Valley), another rising star, finished third in 1.74m.
Michael Bowler (Enniscorthy) won the men’s pole vault with a 4.60m clearance while Mark Burton (Queens) succeeded in the triple jump with a best of 14.29m.
