Name: Cian McPhillips
Club: UCD AC
Event: 800m
Personal Best: 1.44.19
Tokyo Schedule: Tue 16 Sept 11:35
Juveniles
The majority of the Irish population may have been alerted to the talent of Cian McPhillips as news broke of his European u20 Championships 1500m in 2021. It was one of four Irish gold medals won during those championships. However, Cian McPhillips came to my attention six years earlier. The location: Santry 2015, the National cross-country championships. Watching the boys u14 file into the finishing chute, a young boy with the words Longford AC etched on his singlet passed me. He finished in 7th place. It was by my reckoning the first Longford athlete to get an individual All-Ireland Cross-country medal since the days of the great Enda Fitzpatrick. The following year (2016) he won the u15 title and in 2017 he won the u16 title. A real middle-distance talent was once again coming out of Longford.
An International Career.
McPhillips journey began three years before that European gold medal (in 2018) when he finished 14th at the European u18 1500m in Hungary. In 2020 he won the high school mile at the Millrose Games. The following year (2021) was a good year for the talented Longford athlete, who is coached by Joe Ryan. He ran a personal best of 1:46.13 in Dublin that qualified him for the European Indoor 800m. At those indoors he reached the semi-finals. Then came his win in the u20 European Championships in Estonia. This was followed by an impressive personal best of 3;40.56 at the AAI games in Carlow and a 1:47.83 in Belfast. Selected for the European u20 Cross-country in Dublin, he had to forego his place due to injury. That same injury lasted all through 2022.
In 2023 he finished 7th in the European u23 800m final. 2024 was disappointing for McPhillips – injury still plagued him off and on and he just could not quiet reach the times he should be capable of. He did have a magnificent 800m win at the National Senior Indoors, where he beat his training partner Mark Milner. His season ended in mid-June. For the remainder of 2024 Cian McPhillips was not a name that was mentioned on any start-list or any finishing results.
Then 2025 exploded with a turn of fortune. A second-place finish in Boston in February with a new personal best of 1:45.33 had him edging close to the times the very much in-form Mark English had be producing. Just seven days earlier English had broken the National record with 1:45.15. An infringement in the heats of the European Indoors in Apeldoorn caused a calf injury and his 7th place in the semi-final did not justify the form he was in.
With the injury healed by the time the summer set in, the UCD athletes times were also looking good too. A new personal best of 1:45.51 while finishing second at the Cork City Sports provided a warmup for the Morton Games. At Morton he knocked almost a second and a half off his previous best to take victory in the 800m. Whispers from the crowd had him vying Mark English for the National title. After all, 1:44.19 less than six weeks earlier would have been a national record.
McPhillips finished second to Mark English at the National Championships, his first national senior track and field medal. In early August he ran 1:44.34 in not so ideal conditions in Belgium. His form was good, and he was ready for Tokyo. Tokyo will mark Cian McPhillips World Championship debut.
International Majors
2018: European u18 Championships, Hungary 1500m H1 14th
2021: European Indoors Poland, 800m SF 4th
2021: European u20 Championships, Estonia, 1500m 1st Final
2023: European u23 Championships Finland 800m 7th Final
2025: European Indoor Championships, Apeldoorn 800m SF 7th
2022: World Championships, 800m Tokyo
Personal Bests
800m: 1:44.19 11/07/2025
600m: 1:16.32 27/04/2025
800m (i): 1:45.33 14/02/2025