Ciara Mageean sights firmly on Paris Olympics after injuries picked up following a parkrun in Belfast

On the Saturday before Christmas, Ciara Mageean set another milestone of sorts in her athletics career. She clocked the fastest parkrun in the world, running a time of 15 minutes and 13 seconds over 5km at Victoria Park in Belfast. Her previous best over the distance was 15:24.

It was an achievement that perhaps did not garner many headlines, it came a month after she was named Irish Track Athlete of the Year for 2023 alongside Rhasidat Adeleke - a recognition for coming so close to winning a medal in the 1500 metres at the World Championships.

In finishing fourth in Budapest, she set a new Irish record of three minutes 56.31 seconds. She would subsequently improve on that, a time of 3:55.87 was achieved at a Diamond League meeting.

Hopes high then that Mageean can run faster in this Olympic year. So far we have yet to see her in competitive action.

Unfortunately that parkrun saw the Portaferry competitor picked up an injury during the run itself, which ultimately meant she missed the indoor season. As a consequence she was not present at last weekend's World Indoors in Glasgow.

Speaking at an event in Dublin where Flogas were announced as the energy partner of Team Ireland for the Paris Games, Mageaan outlined what transpired in the days and weeks after that pre-Christmas 5km.

"I just did a stride, and I've been getting a neural pain for a number of years, a little shooting neural pain. And I thought 'ah, that feels like that’, just a little tweak, it didn’t impact my running. So I’d just run it off. Then later that evening, my glute-hamstring got a little tight.

"So I took it easy the next few days, ran a bit slower, a few less miles, and then we were in camp in Flagstaff [in Arizona in January], I tried my first session, and