Belfast Milers Meet kicks off athletics summer

Tokyo Olympics 1500m fifth placer Gabriela DeBues-Stafford will compete over 3,000m at Saturday's Belfast Irish Milers Meet

World-class Canadian athlete Gabriela DeBues-Stafford will lead the entries at Saturday's Belfast Irish Milers Meet which once again is set to be held in perfect sunny conditions at the Mary Peters Track.

Event director Eamonn Christie has had the good fortunate of having the weather gods on his side in recent years and the athletes have responded by producing a series of brilliant runs at a meeting which is part of World Athletics' Continental Tour series.

These included last year's astonishing breakthrough by 17-year-old English talent Phoebe Gill, who broke the 45-year-old European Under-18 800m record when smashing her personal best with a one minute 57.86 triumph.

The performance propelled the St Alban's athlete to the Paris Olympics where she went on to reach the 800m semi-finals.

Gill was set to return to the Mary Peters Track this year only for injury to rule her out but Christie has still been able to assemble a strong entries list.

DeGues-Stafford fifth in Tokyo

Canadian DeGues-Stafford finished fifth in the 1500m at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 when she clocked her personal best of 3:58.93 as Faith Kipyegon, Laura Muir and Sifan Hassan clinched the medals.

Now coached in Edinburgh by 1988 Olympic 3,000m steeplechase bronze medallist Mark Rowland, the 29-year-old had a couple of comparatively disappointing campaigns in 2023 and 2002 and didn't compete in Paris last year.

However under Rowland's guidance, DeGues-Stafford is now plotting her second coming and has told Christie that she is targeting a brisk 8:40 pace in the 3,000m, which would be less that seven seconds outside her personal best of 8:33.92 set indoors in 2022.

"The plan is that two pacemakers will get Gabriela to halfway," Christie told BBC Sport NI.

"It's her first race of the year so she admits she doesn't know exactly what shape she's in but the plan is to attack the race."

Daniel Rowden looks the class of the field in the men's 800m by dint of his personal best of 1:43.95 set in 2023

The men's 800m field will include twice British champion Daniel Rowden, who set his personal best of 1:43.95 in 2023.

That time is considerably faster that the 1:44.79 achieved by last year's Belfast winner Callum Dodds when Tom Randolph also went under 1:45.

Rowden's rivals will include his fellow Britons Justin Davies and Tiarnan Croken, who bettered the 1:46 mark 12 months ago, plus Spaniard Ignacio Fontes, who reached the Olympic 1500m final in Tokyo.

While it's unlikely that anybody will be clocking 1:57, the two-minute barrier could again be under threat in the women's 800m with emerging Britons Erin Wallace, Abigail Ives and Shaikira King in the field and Jenna Bromell leading the Irish challenge.

Wallace finished second behind Gill last year when she was just outside two minutes while Ives clocked her personal best of 1:59.92 at the meeting in 2023 when finishing second behind Ireland's Louise Shanahan.

The men's 1500m has the makings of a good race with Cork athlete Darragh McElhinney taking on a field that includes four-minute miler and Ciara Mageean's boyfriend Thomas Moran plus English pair Max Wharton and Alex Melloy, who both have bettered 3:40 for the distance.

The local challenge in the men's metric mile is likely to be led by Callum Morgan and UCD student and Lagan Valley club athlete Lughaidh Mallon.

There will be much interest in Bori Akinola's performance in the 100m following an impressive winter campaign which saw him reach the 60m semi-finals at the European Indoor Championships after dethroning Israel Olatunde to win the Irish title.