First things first, Mageean goes in her opening heat at 10:45 BST on Friday alongside 800m specialist Reekie, who has a 1500m personal best of 3:58.65 from last year, and Poland’s Sofia Ennaoui, who is the only other competitor in the field to have broken four minutes for the metric mile distance.
Healy, who set her personal best of 3:59.68 at last year’s World Championships, will be up against Snowden (PB 3:56.72) and another Britain Georgia Bell in heat two.
The Dubliner, coached in England by Jenny Meadows and Trevor Painter, will be looking avoid any mishaps after her unfortunate fall three months ago at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow which cost her a place in the final.
Letterkenny athlete Mark English also competes on the opening morning in Rome as he begins his bid to clinch a fifth European 800m medal while Michelle Finn goes in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase heats.
English, who is now 31, clinched European bronze in Munich two years ago – eight years after finishing third in the final in Zurich.
The Donegal man’s career has also included securing European Indoor silver and bronze medals and his 1:44.95 run in Oslo last week suggests he can again be in contention in Rome.
However, he will have to run well on Friday morning to progress with four of his heat rivals having also run under 1:45 – including Great Britain’s Elliott Giles whose lifetime best is 1:43.63 and Spain’s Adrian Ben, who has a 1:43.92 time to his name.