Ciara Mageean: Portaferry runner wants to 'throw everything' at 2024 Olympics in Paris

Ciara Mageean feels she has "unfinished business" with the Olympic Games and is determined to put past disappointments behind her in Paris next year.

The Portaferry runner has been named the 2023 BBC Northern Ireland Sports Personality of the Year.

Mageean followed up her Commonwealth and European silver medal wins last year with a record-breaking 2023.

"Definitely, my time has come," she told BBC Sport NI when asked if she is owed a good Olympics.

Mageean missed out on selection for the London Games in 2012 and, after reaching a semi-final in Rio four years later, she suffered a calf injury on the eve of the Tokyo Games in 2021.

"I have been chomping at the bit. I have served my time," she added.

"To not get to go to London was disappointing, I was so young.

"I was disappointed in Rio but I made a semi-final, I was still fairly young and it was my first Olympic Games so sometimes I am pretty hard on myself.

"I was more disappointed because I went out in the Paris Diamond League meeting straight after the Olympics in Rio and ran the best race I had ever ran, 4:01. I didn't get it out in the Olympic Games which is disappointing.

"Then Tokyo was just heart-breaking for me to tear my calf the week leading in. That was a blow that I think I will always find really tough to look back on. So, yes, I feel like I have got unfinished business at the Olympic Games."

'I want to have no regrets'

Mageean won a 1500m silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and European Championships

Mageean could not be in a much more positive frame of mind going into an Olympic year, with the 31-year-old having knocked over two seconds off Sonia O'Sullivan's 29-year Irish mile record earlier in 2023 - a feat that made her the fifth fastest athlete in history over the distance.

She broke the Irish 1500m record, before going own to break it again, and also set a new Irish 800m record.

In August, she finished just outside the medals, in fourth place, in what is regarded as one of the best-ever line-ups for a women's 1500m final at the World Championships, won by Faith Kipyegon.

"I am really excited because this is the best I have ever been going into an Olympics cycle," she said.

"To have my European and Commonwealth silvers in 2022 then fourth in the world in 2023. That certainly gives me a lot of fire in my belly and the confidence that I am just as good as these girls, that I can race the best in the world.

"I am certainly hoping that I can make it three really good years in a row . All I have to do is emulate what I have done for the past two years and hopefully do a little bit better.

"I'm, excited. It's a good place to be and I'm going to throw everything and the kitchen sink at it. When I eventually hand up the spikes I want to have no regrets."

1500m European final 'a huge honour'

Mageean narrowly missed out on a medal in a star-studded 1500m final at the World Athletics Championships in August

It was Kipyegon who told Mageean, via a video message, that she had won the 2023 BBC Northern Ireland Sports Personality of the Year award.

Mageean believes the Kenyan middle-distance runner will go down as "the greatest of all time" and explained how much of an honour - although disappointing at the time - to come fourth in that World Championship final, which she described as the 1500m final field ever.

"I can tip my hat and say there were three people better than me on that day but I was pretty down.

"I found that tough. Later on, whenever I got back to my family and sat down with my boyfriend, Thomas, he said that he really thinks that I should watch that race back.

"Eventually I did, the following day, and that probably gave me a little bit more perspective on it, that I ran the best race that I could have run. I can honestly say I didn't set a foot wrong in the whole race.

"I tracked Faith perfectly, I was working at my maximum and after a fairly slow start we ran fast so I couldn't fault it. On reflection I am very proud, it is the best race that I could have raced.

"There were three girls better than me. That is disappointing for me on the day but I am extremely proud of it. To be up there placing fourth in the world in what is arguably the best 1500m field ever, that's a huge honour to have."