Barcelona 2010 certainly was an experience to remember. The trip started with a 9 day stint in Murcia, for the pre-Championships training camp. Only 13 athletes opted to go, so it ended up being a nicely paced week, allowing us to go to Barcelona with our batteries fully charged.
We had 2 physios and 2 soft-tissue therapists in Barcelona, allowing one of each to be down with the competing athletes at the track at either the morning or the evening sessions, and the other 2 back at the hotel for those not racing that day. This proved to be a nice balance, and while the days were long, the mix of working at both track and hotel during the day made the time fly.
The championships ran from Tuesday to Sunday, with the week proving an emotional rollercoaster to say the least. The early part of the week brought the earlier rounds of competition. Both Ailis McSweeney and Niamh Whelan produced superb breakthrough performances to qualify for the 100m and 200m semi-finals respectively, particularly when you consider that it was their first time racing at a major championships. Both narrowly missed out on final places, finishing in 9th position overall, with Ailis being just 0.01seconds away from a final place. While they were disappointed, they were also pleased with their outstanding performances. The bittersweet moments of athletics.
There were disappointing moments due to illness for Olive Loughnane and Tom Chamney, but the uplifting experience of Rob Heffernans’ 4th place finish on the Fri lifted everyone’s spirits heading into the weekend. Rob had to settle for a 4th place finish in his 20km race on the Tuesday, after which he decided to enter the 50km race on the Friday, partly because his wife Marion was racing on Saturday in the 4x400m, and so he wanted to “keep out of trouble”! His training had been geared towards the 20km, and so his plan was to see how he felt at 30km, and stay in or pull out at that stage. The route was in the city in a 1km loop, and I was there for the whole race with the team Doctor, Suzi Clarke. 18km had Rob calling out to me that his hamstring was sore, followed by a sore hip at 20km- I thought at that stage that he was going to pull out. But against all odds, Rob pulled out the performance of his life to finish in 4th place in a world class field. The support from the Iarge Irish contingent was incredible and the reception he received when he came out was something special- amid chants of “ole”, Rob certainly got the credit he deserved- a great character and a fantastic athlete. The other great story from that race was Colin Griffin, who almost didn’t make it to the start line due to a well-publicised hamstring injury, which we worked daily on both on the treatment table and in the gym for the previous 2 weeks. Colin also gave a personal best performance of finishing in 11th place, and I am pleased to say that his hamstring gave him no trouble whatsoever!
That Friday night brought Paul Hession’s and David Gillick’s 200m and 400m respective finals. Most of the team came to the stadium to spectate that night, and I somehow managed to secure a few hours off that evening so I was a spectator too! Unfortunately both had disappointing races, both terrific athletes with more to come in the future.
Saturday brought the relay heats. Ailis and Niamh joined Amy Foster and Claire Brady to make the 4x100m relay team who smashed the national record of 44.27 by clocking in an incredible 43.93, which had them miss out on a final place by 0.03 seconds. They were rightly very proud of their achievement, and are definitel y athletes to watch out for in the future.
The 4x400m girls relay team of Marion Heffernan, Joanne Cuddihy, Michelle Carey, and Brona Furlong also produced a terrific performance, again setting a new national record, and narrowly missing out on a final by again finishing in 9th place overall.
With no relay team making the finals, our last night of Irish athletics culminated in Derval’s semi-final and final, and Alastair Cragg’s final. Again most of the Irish team came down to the stadium to lend support to their team-mates. Derval’s race didn’t disappoint, and with her usual flair for excelling at major championships, she delivered the best performance of her life to take the silver medal. A very happy Derval in typical fashion gave us more entertainment when she celebrated in style with Barni the Championship mascot. As the last night of the championships, it was good to finish on a high.
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