Irish relay medallist among Belfast meeting entries

Sligo athlete Lauren Cadden will be one of the competitors in action in Belfast on Saturday three days after picking up a European Championship women's 4x400m silver medal as part of the Ireland team.

Cadden ran the opening heat on Tuesday to help Ireland reach Wednesday's final in Rome where she was replaced in the quartet by Rhasidat Adeleke.

The Sligo woman still picked up a medal for her semi-final run and she competes over 400m at the Mary Peters Track meeting being jointly organised by the British Milers Club and the Lagan Valley club.

Cadden's Ireland team-mate, Ballymena & Antrim athlete Callum Baird, is also among the entries for the meeting after running a superb anchor leg for Ireland in the men's 4x400m heats even though the Irish quartet missed out on securing a finals spot.

Seventy years after Roger Bannister became the first athlete to run a mile in under four minutes, the meeting will feature the classic four-lap distance as the competitors aim to commemorate the feat by producing another sub-four race.

Talented Lagan Valley 18-year-old Lughaidh Mallon and Nick Griggs' training partner Callum Morgan will be among the athletes targeting the four-minute mark.

Mallon, who represented Ireland at last year's European Under-20 Championships in Jerusalem and finished a superb 13th in the under-20 men at the European Clubs Cross Country event in March, has a 1500m personal best of 3:44.27 from last month so could potentially threaten the four-minute barrier.

Morgan bettered eight minutes for 3,000m outdoors for the first time in last month's Belfast Irish Milers Meet at the Mary Peters Track and also will target a first sub-four performance, with his personal best of 4:01.07 set indoors in the US last February.

Other competitors in the mile include Irishman and Ciara Mageean's boyfriend Thomas Moran, who did break the four-minute mark when he clocked 3:58.07 indoors in Boston five months ago.

The women's 800m has the look of a good race with Greek national champion Eirini Vasileiou taking on French 2:03.29 Cindy Bourdier and precocious English talent Shaikira King in addition to Irish athletes Jenna Bromell and Iseult O'Donnell.

King produced the fastest ever 800m run by a British female 15-year-old when she clocked 2:02.60 at a British Milers Club event in Gillingham in April.

The programme will start at 12:00 BST at the Mary Peters Track.