Mageean comfortably through to European 1500m final

Ciara Mageean produced an assured performance in this morning's 1500m semi-finals at the European Athletics Championships to comfortably advance to Friday’s final in Munich, while Sarah Healy failed to make it through.

After her recent silver medal at the Commonwealth Games, the 30-year-old continued her good form to set a season’s best 4:03.03 in finishing second to Poland’s Sofia Ennaoui in what was a significantly faster race than the earlier semi-final won by Tokyo silver medallist Laura Muir.

The Down native took the initiative right from the start, moving to the front where she set the pace to take the bell with Romania’s Claudia Bobocea on her shoulder.

On the final bend Ennaoui made a push for the front and eased past Mageean on the home stretch, with the top four guaranteed of progressing.

In the first semi-final, Healy’s time of 4:10.75 saw her finish in 11th place, with Muir first across the line in 4:06.40.

The final takes place on Friday evening at 7.45pm.