Stanley Says - European Championships, Running & Ciara Mageean

It’s been a week of tremendous achievements for our very own SERE brand ambassador, Ciara Mageean, who on Sunday won a superb bronze medal in the 1500m event at the European Championships in Amsterdam.

Ciara, 24, from Portaferry, County Down first met my wife Rosemary and son James at an athletic event earlier this year and both were extremely impressed with Ciara’s hard work, determination and down-to-earth nature.  Shortly after this first encounter, I was delighted to be asked to help Ciara achieve her goals for this year and presented her with a SEAT Ibiza to help make it a little easier for her to meet all her commitments.

Since just 15 years old, Ciara has established a name for herself on the Irish Athletics scene - winning silver medals at the 2009 World Youth Championship and 2010 World Juniors.  Ciara was tipped as being the future of Irish Athletics but a persistent ankle problem prevented her from competing at International level.  This proved just a setback in Ciara’s flourishing athletic career and her hard-work and determination paid off on Sunday at the European Championships.

The event in Amsterdam was Ciara’s first senior international final and she became the first ever athlete from Northern Ireland to medal at the event securing a third place bronze medal in 4:33.78 just behind Polish winner Angelika Cichocka’s 4:33.00.

With such an impressive performance in Amsterdam; it puts her in a great position for future races and is hopefully the first of many medals to come.  On behalf of everyone at SERE, I would like to wish Ciara the very best of luck for all her future endeavours.