MAEVE O’Neill will make her senior Irish international debut at the World Indoor Championships in Toruń, Poland this weekend.

The Ballinacarriga woman (22) has earned the opportunity to rub shoulders with the best athletes in the world after a stunning season with Providence College in Rhode Island.

Last month the Doheny AC athlete broke the Irish indoor 800m record with a stunning 2:00.33 at the Saucony Battle for Boston meet, to better Síofra Cléirigh Büttner’s national record of 2:00.58 which had been set in 2021.

Maeve, a junior at Providence, then raced to 800m glory in a record time at the BIG EAST indoor championships, as well as helping the 4x800m relay team win gold. She subsequently won the BIG EAST Most Outstanding Female Track Performer award.

Just last weekend, at the NCAA Indoor Championships, Maeve missed out on the final by .03 of a second, finishing fourth in her heat with a time of 2:03.40. Still, she earned Second Team All-America honours in the 800 metres, and is now a three-time All-American.

The World Indoors will be an incredible experience for O’Neill who will be joined on the Irish team by established stars like Kate O’Connor (pentathlon), Mark English (800m), Andrew Coscoran (3000m) and Sarah Lavin (60m hurdles).