Ciara Mageean breaks Irish indoor mile record

Ciara Mageean has the qualifying standard for the World Indoor Championships

Ciara Mageean set her second Irish indoor record in a fortnight as she placed sixth in the women's Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games in New York.

Mageean's time of 4:28.40 cut 1.66 seconds off Roisin McGettigan's previous best mark set in 2009.

Portaferry athlete Mageean was in third spot with 100m to go after being prominent throughout before losing ground over the last half lap.

Mageean, 23, set a new Irish indoor 1500m record two weeks ago.

Shannon Rowbury retained her title at the Wanamaker Mile

However, she then dropped out of a 3000m race in Boston last weekend.

Americans filled the first five positions in the New York race with Shannon Rowbury winning in 4:24.39 ahead of Kerri Gallagher (4:26.18), Amanda Eccleston (4:26.63), Heather Kampf (4:27.26) and Morgan Uceny (4:27.99).

Mageean's time at the 1500m mark was 4:09.01 - just outside her Irish record set in Karlsruhe earlier this month.

At the same venue, Irish athlete John Travers clocked 3:58.10 to finish sixth in the Armory Invitational Mile, which was held after after the Millrose Games meeting.

Ciara Mageean has taken encouragement from her run at the Millrose Games

Earlier, Matthew Centrowitz became the fourth fastest indoor miler of all time as he clocked 3:50.63 to win the Wanamaker Mile ahead of Nick Willis, whose time of 3:51.06 was a New Zealand record.

Irish great Eamonn Coghlan (3:49.78) remains the second fastest indoor miler of all-time behind world record holder Hicham El Guerrouj (3:48.45).

Meanwhile, Letterkenny athlete Mark English continued his impressive indoor form as he placed second in the 800m at Saturday's Glasgow Grand Prix.

English clocked a season's best of 1:46.99 which left him behind Poland's European outdoor champion Adam Kszczot (1:46.23).

Those behind English included highly-rated Kenyan Timothy Kitum, who took fourth, although the Irishman's task was made easier by the early exits of Ethiopia's 2013 world champion Mohammed Aman and Dutchman Bram Som after a coming together.

Clohisey on course for Rio

Mick Clohisey edged closer to earning one of Ireland's three spots for the Rio Olympics marathon as he clocked a time of two hours, 15 minutes and 10 seconds in Seville on Sunday.

That moved the Raheny athlete up one spot to second fastest of the current Irish marathon crop behind Belfast man Kevin Seaward, who posted 2:14.52 in Berlin last September.

Clohisey's time was five seconds faster than Sergiu Ciobanu's mark set in Berlin last autumn.

Northern Ireland man Paul Pollock is currently the fourth fastest Irish contender with his 2:15.38 in Berlin and he will aim to improve on that at the London Marathon in April.

Pollock continued his build-up towards his London outing by winning the Wokingham Half Marathon on Sunday in 63 minutes and 45 seconds.

Ganiel gets marathon PB

North Belfast athlete Gladys Ganiel and another Irish woman Barbara Sanchez both achieved the Olympic Marathon standard in Seville on Sunday but their times are unlikely to be enough to secure berths in Rio.

American-born Ganiel's time of 2:38.53 is a minute and 24 seconds slower than the mark achieved by current third Irish qualifier, another North Belfast athlete Breege Connolly.

Cork athlete Lizzie Lee (2:32.51) and Fionnuala McCormack (2:33.15) look to have secured their Brazil berths, and Connolly is currently the third fastest Irish woman, but a number of athletes are still chasing Rio qualification.

Ganiel, 38, represented Northern Ireland at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and her time on Sunday cut 33 seconds off her previous personal best set in Berlin in 2013.