Home hero Ciara Mageean will lead the entries for a Belfast Irish Milers Meet on 13 May which again is attracting top level British and Irish competitors in addition to overseas talent.
Mageean was beaten by fellow Olympian Louise Shanahan last year as the Cork athlete snatched her Irish 800m record with a stunning 1:59.42 run.
The Portaferry woman also broke two minutes and will be out for revenge.
The loaded women’s 800m field includes former European champion Lynsey Sharp.
Scottish athlete Sharp returned to action earlier this year for the first time since 2019 after a three-year competitive hiatus which saw her both become a mother and also battling against injury.
Sharp finished sixth in the 2016 Olympic 800m final in Rio having clinched the European title in 2012 in addition to winning European and Commonwealth Games silver medals in 2014.
The talent in the women’s 800m entry doesn’t end there with the field set to include European Under-23 champion Isabelle Boffey, other Britons Jenny Selman and Abigail Ives plus Irish Olympians Nadia Power and Sarah Healy in addition to their fellow Irishwoman Georgie Hartigan.
‘That race put my meeting on the map’
Dublin athlete Healy recently linked up with the training group run by Jenny Meadows and Trevor Painter, which includes Olympic and world 800m silver medallist Keeley Hodgkinson.
Mageean, therefore, will face a tough task at the Mary Peters Track but event director Eamonn Christie, who coached the Portaferry athlete in the early part of her career, says she will be determined to take victory at her home track after being pipped last year.
“Everything is back on track for Ciara after she had to miss the European Indoor Championships because of injury,” he added.
“If Ciara and Louise are coming up the home straight together again, I will be absolutely delighted.
“That race put my meeting on the map. The word has got out that Belfast is one of the fastest tracks in Europe. This year I opened the entries on 9am on 20 February and had to close them down at 8.30pm that day because I had 405 entries.”
But while Mageean will undoubtedly be the big draw to the Mary Peters Track meeting which again will have World Athletics Continental Tour Challenger and European Permit status, the event programme will have talent all the way from emerging Irish sprint star Israel Olatunde in the 100m to Tyrone wonder kid Nick Griggs in the 3,000m – and plenty in between.
Olatunde improved his then personal 100m personal best to 10.35 seconds as he took victory last May which like Mageean, kickstarted a sensational reason for him which concluded with him smashing Paul Hession’s Irish record when he clocked 10.17 to finish sixth at the European Championships in Munich.
The engaging Dundalk man continued his brilliant form during this year’s indoor season as he also bettered Hession’s 60m national record with a 6.57 second clocking in February.
Griggs, after ducking under 3:40 for 1500m for the first time in late February, will take on British 7:52 and 7:55 men Mark Pearce and William Battershill in what is sure to be a competitive 3,000m.
Leeds star Ethan Hussey will also be back at the Belfast meeting after edging out Griggs over 1500m last year, as he began a season which culminated in a superb 800m silver at the World Under-20 Championships in Colombia.
Hussey will be part of an 800m field which includes last year’s winner Kildare man John Fitzsimons and 1:44 runner Archie Davis, who finished second in the two-lap event 11 months ago.
Christie says advice and input from World Athletics’ head of competition management, Irishman Pierce O’Callaghan has been “invaluable” for the Belfast meeting’s continuing development.
“While I don’t get any support from the local council, I have great sponsors behind me in the event’s main backer TripAdvisor and Cathal McLaughlin’s E&I Engineering which enables me to build up the meeting year on year.
“Pierce O’Callaghan at World Athletics also gives me a lot of his time which I’m very grateful for.”