It’s always great to go away with a team to a championship. The athlete’s whole season is geared towards making the qualification standard for a major, and once this is achieved, then planning their training so that they peak at the right time. You can feel this energy and excited nerves when you work at these competitions and it makes for some real emotional roller coasters.
I travelled as team physio with the Irish junior track and field team to Tallinn, Estonia, my first time at a junior championship. A team of 16 athletes (they must be 18 or 19 this year to qualify as a Junior), 4 coaches, team manager and team doctor travelled for the championships that took place over 4 days, with the whole trip lasting a week.
In one sense it was a busy week, heading down to the track usually on the 7am bus, and coming back on the last bus around 9pm to work back at the hotel until about 11pm. Thankfully no-one was carrying any major injuries and so the workload itself wasn’t too great. Temperatures soared into the 30’s for the first few days, and so it was a priority to keep the athletes cool. This weather suited the sprinters more than the endurance athletes. In particular Liam Brady competed in 32 degree heat to make his international debut by coming 7th in the 10km, and the 10km race walkers Maeve Curley (10th) and Emma Prendiville (15th) had to endure similar conditions.
Stand-out performances included Thomas Barr, who, also making his international debut, smashed the Irish National Junior record twice, and also recording the 2nd fastest time run by any Irish man ever (Junior or Senior) over the 400m hurdles. Thomas was ranked 5th in his round 1 heat, only to win it, then come second in his semi-final, and ultimately finished 5th in the final. Since then he has knocked another chunk off his personal best by running 50.06s at the National Senior Championships. Keep an eye on Thomas for the future.
400m runner Joanna Mills also defied her ranking by qualifying through 2 rounds for the final where she was placed 4th. Another great fighting performance.
Medal hopeful Ciara Mageean went into a straight final, the qualifying heats being cancelled. It’s never easy leading a 1500m from the start, which is what Ciara unfortunately ended up doing. Despite a valiant effort to hold off the Serbian, Ciara’s gold medal hopes got dashed in the last 40m. A great performance and she brought home Ireland’s only silver medal to add to her silver from last year’s World Juniors.
European Juniors wrapped up my athletic season for this year. Within the past year I have been fortunate enough to have worked at the European Cross Country Championships in Portugal, European Team Championships in Turkey, European Junior Championships in Estonia, and worked with junior and senior athletes at 2 training camps in Portugal. I was privileged enough to work with teams that took home gold (U-23’s men’s cross country) and silver medals (Ciara Mageean). Who knows what 2012 will bring.
