CIARA MAGEEAN POWERED into the 1,500m final at the IAFF World Athletics Championships on Thursday night with a solid fifth place finish during her semi-final in Doha.
The Portaferry native crossed the finish line with a time of 4:15.49 to become the first Irish female 1,500m finalist since Sonia O’Sullivan achieved the feat back in 1997.
Mageean controlled the race from the front early on and dug deep late on in the final lap to secure fifth.
The Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan, who has already won gold in the 10,000m event, crossed with an impressive time of 4:14.69, with the top five finishers in each semi-final securing automatic qualification for Saturday’s final.
Mageean won European indoor bronze earlier this year in Glasgow and has been training at high altitude in Switzerland in recent weeks preparing for this year’s World Championships.
She coasted through to tonight’s semi-final with another brilliant fifth-place finish yesterday. The 27-year-old will now look ahead to this weekend’s final at the Khalifa International Stadium, hoping to add to her European bronze won back in March.
Absolutely brilliant from Ciara Mageean- qualifies for the World 1500m Final. At the front early and hung in there magnificently. Superb! pic.twitter.com/AOGWV1uCwK
— Thomas Niblock (@thomasniblock) October 3, 2019
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