Ciara Mageean claims silver medal in European 1,500m

James Cox

Ciara Mageean has won Ireland’s first medal at this year’s European Championships.

She took silver in the women’s 1,500 metres tonight in Munich, running a season’s best time of 4:02.56.

Mageean was just over a second behind the gold of Laura Muir. She finished over a second ahead of the fancied Sofia Ennaoui of Poland.

The silver medal is one of the biggest achievements of Mageean's career so far.

She previously claimed bronze medals at European indoor and outdoor championships.The 30-year-old also finished tenth in the world 1,500 metre final in 2019.

Mark English qualified automatically for Sunday’s 800-metre final by placing third in his semi-final tonight.

Earlier today, the women’s 4 × 400 relay team broke the national record in qualifying for tomorrow’s final.