CIARA MAGEEAN EXPRESSED her delight after winning gold at a major championships as she celebrated success in Rome tonight.
After going close but coming up short in previous European Championships, bronze in Amsterdam in 2016 and silver in Munich in 2022, along with a fourth-place finish in the World Championships last year in Budapest, Mageean changed the script tonight.
"I didn't grow up playing camogie to get boxed in."
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) June 9, 2024
Ciara Mageean gives her reaction to @DavidGillick after winning GOLD 🥇 in the women's 1500m Final at the European Athletics Championships☘️ #Roma2024 pic.twitter.com/kIynFPW0WV
The Portaferry native found a gap between the British pair of Jemma Reekie and Georgia Bell, which enabled her to kick for home and cross the line in first place.
“When I was getting a bit boxed in, I thought ‘Oh my God’. I have all the legs left but nowhere to go,” remarked Mageean afterwards, when speaking to David Gillick for RTÉ in Rome.
“I didn’t grow up playing camogie to get boxed in.
“I want to thank everybody who has helped me get here today to win my first senior gold medal for Ireland. To be at the top of the podium and to hear our National Anthem and to show world athletics that the Irish are here.
“We are here to show where we belong.”
Mageean admitted to pre-race nerves, but believed she had ‘a mission’ to succeed.
“Everybody back home knows how long I have been doing this, how hard I have been trying. I’ve had so many times when I’ve come off races and not felt the way I am today.
“I went out on that track today super nervous, but I had a plan and a mission, that was to hear Amhrán na bhFiann.”
