Phil Healy takes centre stage at Irish Indoor Championships

In better days the Irish Indoor Athletics Championships would often come with a few bonus tracks. Some head-to-head for selection, some defiant showdown or proof of fitness, or something like that.

Not this time. A relatively low-key season means there is unlikely to be any late shake-up to the Irish qualifiers for next month’s World Indoor Championships in Birmingham, which currently number only three: Phil Healy in the 400m, Amy Foster in the 60m, and Ciara Mageean in the 1,500m.

Not a single men’s qualifier, in other words, and while Brian Gregan might well have been in the running for a 400m slot had illness not interrupted his season, it’s still slim pickings.

Indeed, it’s not yet entirely clear whether Mageean will make herself available for Birmingham where the World Indoors take place on March 2nd-4th.

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She has dipped her spikes onto the boards, a fast-paced star-laden race at the Boston Indoor Games last Saturday helping to propel her to a time of 4:09.47 over 1,500m – inside the necessary qualifying time. It follows Mageean’s time of 4:30.99 for the mile at the Millrose Games in New York, where she finished third, although her more immediate priority remains the Commonwealth Games in Australia in April.

Healy is definitely set for Birmingham, and after a brilliant start to the season she takes centre stage at Sport Ireland’s National Indoor Arena in Abbotstown over the weekend: her 52.08 for 400m last month is properly world class, although the Bandon woman will find some useful competition in Claire Mooney (UCD), Sinead Denny (DSD), Catherine McManus (DCH) and Ciara Deely.

Foster equalled the Irish indoor 60m record with her 7.30 seconds last month, but Limerick teenage Ciara Neville has the potential to match that time and perhaps give the selectors something to think about.

Silver medallist

Mark English, the European indoor silver medallist over 800m from 2015, is by design having a low-key season, and therefore skipping Birmingham: he is down to race here but again there’s not much on the line.

Likewise for Thomas Barr for the simple reason the 400m hurdles is not an indoor event. He drops down to 200m here for purely race-practice purposes, taking on Craig Newell from Ballymena & Antrim AC, and Carlow’s Marcus Lawler, chasing a sprint double.

Further improvement may come too for 17-year-old high jumper Sommer Lecky, who last weekend equalled her Irish junior indoor record with a first-time clearance at 1.86m at the Belgium indoor international, defeating Rio Olympic silver medallist Mirela Demireva in the process. Lecky, from Co Tyrone, competes with the Finn Valley club in Donegal.