Siobhan Whelan competed in the 1500m in the City of Lisburn Track and Field meet at the Mary Peters Track in Belfast earlier today. The race attracted a high-quality entry as many athletes like Siobhan were chasing the European Junior qualifying time, with a sprinkling of more Senior athletes, all looking for early season competition.
The race started and after the initial surge the pace was fast from the start with the pacemaker ensuring that there the tempo was fast from the gun. Soon a group of five athletes were at the front of affairs with a km to go. At this stage Siobhan was lying in 5th place watching every move ahead of her. Then on the 2nd last lap the leading group was down to three with Siobhan well positioned to cover any move. At the bell Siobhan had moved into 2nd place and moving well. She maintained that strong pace all the way to the line to finish 2nd in 4 mins 26.86 secs, a phenomenal performance as she improved greatly on her previous best of 4 mins 29.60 secs, over 3 secs of a PB, fantastic performance. What an opening season performance when you consider that her last race was last September. She also turned the tables on Ava O Connor who was crowned National Junior 1500m Champion last year with Siobhan winning the Bronze. This phenomenal performance by Siobhan was just 0.46 seconds outside the European Junior 1500m B standard qualifying time, oh so close. Still on reflection this was a phenomenal performance and what a way to open your track season. Siobhan next race is also in Belfast in a fortnights time where she will compete in the 3000m event.