Ciara Mageean: NI athlete praises Helen Clitheroe for helping her reach her best

Mageean has won a silver medal in the Commonwealth Games and European Championships with Helen Clitheroe as her coach

Ciara Mageean was just 18 years old and competing in her first Senior Championships at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

As a junior, the up-and-coming star of Irish women's athletics had just won a silver medal at the World Championships before being selected for Northern Ireland.

The Portaferry athlete reached the Commonwealth final and finished tenth, two places behind England's Helen Clitheroe.

It may, or may not be, the circle of life but 12 years later the duo would come together as coach and athlete and Mageean would enjoy the most successful season of her career.

Ironically, Clitheroe would coach Mageean to a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, a result that bettered her own bronze medal from the 2002 Games in Manchester.

Another silver would follow at the European Championships with only Laura Muir able to get the better of Mageean in both races.

By the end of the season however, the tables were turned with Mageean winning a first Diamond League 1500m in Brussels.

She broke, for the first time, the four-minute barrier and Sonia O'Sullivan's Irish national record set back in 1995 by more than two seconds. It was a personal best of 3:56.63.

Six days later, she came second in Zurich in the Diamond Race final, finishing only behind two-time Olympic and world champion Faith Kipyegon and ahead of Muir.

Not a bad start for the new partnership.

'We're on this journey together'

Clitheroe enjoyed a glittering career before moving into coaching last year

Mageean explained: "Helen is the first female coach I've ever had, and we chat about the fact there aren't many female coaches in our sport. I'm very excited to have a female coach and my backroom team is actually quite female dominated.

"Helen took over my coaching quite late into last season so that was really tough. She had to hit the ground running as I was going into a summer with two major championships, and she did fantastic job."

Clitheroe was a highly decorated athlete who represented Team GB at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and again in Beijing eight years later.

Even after racing Mageean in 2010, the Preston athlete went on to win the European Indoor title over 3000m the following year.

After 16 years competing internationally it seemed a natural progression to move into coaching and last year, she was working for Team New Balance in Manchester when she took the reins of the athletes based there, including Mageean.

"We've built on last season's success this winter and our bond has grown even stronger," continued Mageean.

"She's learning a lot about me and I'm learning a lot about her and it's actually really exciting because Helen was a competitor of mine whenever I was a youngster and she was always someone I admired as an athlete.

"Now she's growing as a coach as I'm growing as an athlete and we're on this journey together. It's something I feel really privileged to be experiencing," she added.

'Pressure is a privilege'

Mageean (second from right) broke Sonia O'Sullivan's Irish national record in Brussels earlier this year

From her days as a young athlete, the 31-year-old has worked with some of the best coaches in the sport from Eamonn Christie and the late Jerry Kiernan, to Steve Vernon after she made the move to Manchester in 2017.

Now the baton has been passed to Clitheroe and their relationship is having continued success.

"Helen is giving me a lot of confidence and a lot of strength in the sport, but also outside of the sport because the person you are outside has such a big impact on you as an athlete.

"Helen has really helped me grow and I'm very lucky to have her as my coach and have her in my corner."

After the most successful season of her career, the stability of her coaching set-up with Clitheroe in charge, has erased any doubts Mageean may have had of continuing on her upwards trajectory.

"Having had the season of my life last year with the two silver medals and then smashing it at the end in the Diamond League was just fantastic and there is always that little wonder whether I can go out and emulate that type of season again or even better it," admits Mageean.

"Perhaps in the past I might have looked on it in a slightly negative form, but now I see it as an exciting opportunity.

"I felt like I had a really good season, if I continue to do what I've been doing and build on that confidence I had last year, then this could be an exciting season.

"Next year is an Olympic year and I feel like I'm the best I've ever been, so any pressure that's there I try to look at it as a privilege."

So far this season Mageean has regained her Irish record in the 800m and last month at the Diamond League meeting in Monaco, erased another O'Sullivan record from the books in the women's mile, becoming the fifth fastest of all time (4:14.58).

That race was won in world record time by Kipyegon, and Mageean has nothing but respect for her fellow competitor.

"To be in those races with Faith is phenomenal. She is possibly the greatest middle-distance runner of all time and to say you've raced the greatest of all time is amazing.

"Faith is there raising the bar for all of us to try and follow."

Mageean braced for 'Budapest battle'

Mageean has been competing against two-time Olympic and world champion Faith Kipyegon (right) who set a world record time in the Diamond League meeting in Monaco

It was almost an afterthought that her time in Monaco also qualified for the Paris Olympics next summer because her focus is entirely on the World Championships in Budapest.

The last runner to win a track medal for Ireland was a gold for O'Sullivan in 1995. Mageean knows she has the potential to reach the podium, although Kipyegon looks unbeatable, and the incredible Dutch athlete Sifan Hassan has decided to try for the treble of 1500/5000 and 10,000m.

Muir should be back to her very best and there are plenty of others who will challenge.

"I certainly feel like I'm in the best place I've ever been. I'm really excited to go out and battle in Budapest.

"I'm not sure what some of the other girls will decide to do with regards what events they'll run in, but I tend to only worry about things I can control.

"However, if other athletes decide to double up or race other events then it does add another dynamic to the championships," she concedes.

"I'm looking forward to racing and whatever the outcome of that will be, we'll see, but I'm ready to go and race in these World Championships."

Three races in four days is a different beast than a one-off Diamond League meet with pacemakers, but one Mageean is ready to embrace.

"The 1500m is a true race in my opinion. It could be fast, it could be slow, it could be tactical and flat out and Faith is running times that no one else can get close to and there are a lot of athletes with cards to play.

"I feel like I have a very good repertoire, I can race a fast race or a slow one and I feel like I have all the tools in my arsenal to be able to cope with whatever is thrown at me."