ATHLETICS "Next Sonia" aims to set headlines of her own

Being labelled the next Sonia O'Sullivan is an incredible cross to bear for any athlete especially one at the tender age of 18, however Ciara Mageean is taking it all in her stride. The Lisburn AC athlete has been steadily improving over the last few years under the guidance of her coaches and these improvements have been noted with interest by the High Performance Team at Athletics Ireland.

Her most recent race was at the McCain UK Cross Challenge in Liverpool, which was doubling up as the trials for the Great Britain team for this month's European Cross Country Championships. Mageean finished in 9th place in a time of 15.39. This was not a bad performance by Mageean but to put it in perspective, at last year's European Cross Country championships the Great Britain team took home twelve medals, the Lisburn girl was mixing it with the best.

Prior to this she raced at the Woodie's DIY Inter County Cross Country Championships in Kilbeggan, Westmeath. This was the Irish national championships and was also acting as trials for this month's European Cross Country championships, being held in Ireland for the first time when the event takes place in Santry Park on December 13th. In what were difficult conditions Mageean sailed home twenty seconds ahead of the rest of her peers winning the women's junior race and qualifying for Europe's showpiece cross country event.

It has been a year of achievement for the A-Level student. At the All-Ireland schools she set a new Irish record in the 800m and followed that up with a silver medal at the World Youth Championships during the summer. Not content with this haul Mageean travelled to Finland two weeks later and took home gold in the 1,500m at the European Youth Olympics.

It has been quite the year but she has one major date left in her diary and she is looking forward to competing in Santry. "I am feeling nervous, but also very excited. It is fantastic that Ireland is hosting such a prestigious event and the atmosphere running around Santry Park in an Irish vest with the crowd cheering us on will be unforgettable."

While Mageean has been having a good year so far and experienced medal glory she is coy about more hardware for her mantle piece this weekend. "My aim is to do my very best. I want to come off the course happy with my performance and hopefully this will be enough to maybe return to Portaferry with a medal,"

With many mentioning the teenager in the same breath as Sonia O'Sullivan, Mageean is taking this as a positive. "It is an honour to be compared to Sonia, she is a legend of Irish athletics and I only hope that I can reach the standards that Sonia achieved in her athletic career. It is a bit daunting as I don't want to let anyone down but that little bit of extra pressure can be good at times!" she went on to say.

The SPAR European Cross Country Championships will take place in Ireland for the first time on the 13th December in Santry Park, Dublin. For more information and regular updates on the event and to sign up to the mailing list for the SPAR European Cross Country Championships then log on to www.Dublin2009.ie.

Athletics Ireland is supported nationally in running this event by the Irish Sports Council, Dublin City Council, Fingal County Council, RTة, Failte Ireland and Clonliffe Harriers. Tickets for the event can be purchased from www.dublin2009.ie