Silver lining for Ciara Mageean after recent rocky road

By dealing with the setbacks over the last 12 months, Ciara Mageean believes she is in a better place to truly appreciate her European Championships silver medal.

The Portaferry woman ran one of the races of her career to battle it out with Laura Muir in Friday night's 1500m final.

Similar to the Commonwealth Games, the British athlete came out on top but she was pushed all the way by Mageean, who finished in a season's best time of four minutes 2.56 seconds, with Poland's Sofia Ennaoui taking the bronze.

Having already tasted podium success at the Europeans with a bronze in 2016, the 30-year-old has endured a difficult 12 months. Her Olympic disappointment last year was something she described as "heartbreaking".

If you get too down during the bad times, then sometimes you don't get back up and ready for the good

A torn calf left her well below her best as she finished 10th in her 1500m heat, and as hard as that was to process, it makes the good days all that much better.

"If you look at the last year I had, it was really rocky," she told RTÉ Sport’.

"You have to roll with the punches. If you get too down during the bad times, then sometimes you don’t get back up and ready for the good. I think I have been pretty resilient with the whole process of dealing with the bad.

"I think I’m in a good place and hopefully going to crest the wave for the rest of the season."

Reflecting on her latest European success, Mageean admits that her expectations starting out in her career, given her underage success, were perhaps a little misplaced.

SILVER FOR MAGEEAN - 'This is the best she has ever run in the championship!' @CiaraMageean takes a silver medal with a magnificent run at the European Championships 1500m, GB's Laura Muir taking gold