English star Phoebe Gill has been forced to pull out of next month’s Belfast Irish Milers Meet but world-class Canadian athlete Gabriela DeBues-Stafford has been added to the event’s entries.
Gill, then aged 17, stunned the athletics world by clocking one minute 57.86 to earn a runaway 800m victory at the Belfast meeting last year – four seconds inside her previous personal best – as she broke the 45-year-old European under-18 record.
The St Albans runner, who went on win the UK Olympic trials before reaching the semi-finals at the Paris Games, was scheduled to run the 1500m in Belfast on 10 May but injury means she will be unable to race at the Mary Peters Track.
“It’s one of those things but Phoebe has said that she intends to be back in Belfast in 2026 and we’ll look forward to welcoming her again after the incredible impact she made last year,” said meeting director Eamonn Christie.
“While we’ve lost Phoebe, Gabriela DeBues-Stafford, who finished fifth in the Olympic 1500m final in Tokyo in what was her second Olympics, is the latest addition to the meet and she will run the 3,000m.”
DeBues-Stafford, 29, clocked 3:58.93 in the Olympic 1500m final in 2001 as Faith Kipyegon, Laura Muir and Sifan Hassan clinched the medals.
The Canadian, now coached in Edinburgh by 1988 Olympic 3,000m steeplechase bronze medallist Mark Rowland, had an injury-affected campaign in 2022 and 2023. She didn’t compete in Paris last year, is now very much on the comeback trail.
“Gabriela’s 3,000m personal best is a very fast 8:33.92 and she is looking for an 8:40 pace on 10 May so I’m sorting the pacemakers to give her every opportunity to do that,” added Christie.
“She actually heard about the meeting and contacted me asking if she could get a spot and obviously I’m only too delighted to accommodate an athlete of such quality.”
Sam Reardon, Great Britain’s double Olympic relay medallist from Paris, is among other big names who will race in Belfast.
The 21-year-old will compete over the 400m, while the men’s 800m field includes last year’s winner Callum Dodds and his fellow Great Britain internationals Daniel Rowden and Tom Randolph.
Dodds broke one minute and 45 seconds for the first time to clinch victory in a track record of 1:44.79 at last year’s meet as Randolph also went under 1:45, but Rowden will be the quickest man on personal bests in the 800m field by virtue of his personal best of 1:43.95 from 2023.
With Gill ruled out, Great Britain’s double European junior cross country champion Innes FitzGerald will lead the women’s 1500m entries while the women’s 800m field will include previous Belfast Milers Meet winner Louise Shanahan, Czech champion Kimberley Ficenec and Scotland’s Erin Wallace, who clocked 2:00.23 to finish second behind Gill last year.
