The most unenviable job in sports broadcasting is interviewing losers, they don’t want to be there, you don’t want to be there. There is the horrible fear that you will say something that could further compound their misery. It is an uncomfortable experience for all.
This is made even worse when that person has put in such a performance that has stirred feelings of pride in anyone who took time to watch them compete on TV. Spare a thought for David Gillick who was tasked with talking to Ciara Mageean in the immediate aftermath 1500m final at the European Athletics Championships for RTÉ.
The Portaferry runner was pipped to the bronze medal by Laura Weightman of Team GB while her compatriot Laura Muir came home with gold. Mageean’s devastation was clearly visible, she ran a magnificent race and represented Ireland brilliantly but it didn’t do much to alleviate the literal sick feeling in her stomach as the RTÉ cameras were forced to cut away from track side.
The dust had settled but the pain is unlikely to disappear anytime soon, a medal within her reach but beyond her grasp. She joined Ger and Eoin before taking to the track to train to reflect on her run:
“It’s bittersweet; I’m happy with my performance and went out there to try my best but nobody wants to finish fourth I went there to win a medal and fell short, I’m waking up I’m not going to say upset I’m not crying over it but very much fists clenched and hit the bed a bit being like ‘ugh so close’ but its left me hungry for more so sometimes fourth place is probably the best place to me.”
Magheean will take plenty of positives from her display and hopes it is the kind of performance she can improve upon:
“I went out there and ran the race I planned to do and I executed it the way myself and my coach planned, it literally came down to the last little stretch and the British girls went out to deliberately take the kick out of myself because they knew that I finish strong, it worked, I just didn’t have quite as strong a finish as I’ve had during the season.”
Mageean was a guest on OTB AM on Tuesday, she talked about her fourth place finish in the European Athletics championship and the lessons learned from the event as a whole, her changing in the coaching set-up and why bigger and better things are ahead for her in the future.
You can watch OTB AM from 7:45 every weekday morning on our Facebook, YouTube and Periscope channels.
If you would like to see more sporting videos, like and subscribe to our YouTube channel or log onto offtheball.com.
