Mageean wins World Youth 800 heat

Mageean competes in the European Youth Olympics later this month

Ciara Mageean has started her World Youth Championship challenge in Italy with victory in the heats of the 800 metres on Thursday.

The Portaferry girl safely qualified for Friday's semi-final with a winning time of two minutes, 6.47 seconds.

Her coach Eamon Christie said that the 17-year-old's target was to qualify for Sunday's final in Bressanone.

Mageean went into the meeting ranked fourth in the world after setting a new Irish junior record of 2:05.13 in May.

The semi-finals are scheduled for Friday at 1300 with the final taking place on Sunday at 1915.

After her challenge in Italy, Mageean will return home for four days before heading to Finland for the European Youth Olympics, where she will compete in the 1500m.

Meanwhile, James O'Hare looks set to also compete in at the European Youth Olympics after achieving the qualifying standard last week.

O'Hare clocked 3:50.48 in a race where Finn Valley's Ian Ward (3:49.28) also bettered the qualifying standard.

Veteran Mark Kirk and Stephen Scullion were both drafted in as pacemakers for the race.