I can be in the marathon medals, declares Fagan

MARATHON man Martin Fagan believes he can land a medal at the European Championships if he is selected for the showpiece event.

However the Mullingar man, who became the first Irish winner of the Spar Great Ireland Run on Sunday, has yet to secure qualification for the distance due to a series of injuries.

He vowed: “I know if I can get to the line healthy for the marathon in Barcelona next summer, I can win a medal.

“It is not going to be a fast race – no more than 2:12 – and that will suit me. I am in constant contact with the team manager, Patsy McGonagle, and I am working closely with Athletics Ireland.

“I am the fastest European over the half marathon and am confident I can transfer that on to the marathon,” he said yesterday. “I have the qualifying standard for 10k but I am hoping I get selected for the marathon.

“I run in Edinburgh in two weeks’ time and then in Manchester two weeks later. Then I will take a break and prepare for the summer. A European medal would be of huge benefit to me internationally.”

Fagan ran his debut marathon in Dubai in 2:14:06 to qualify for the 2008 Olympic Games but unfortunately had to drop out in Beijing with an Achilles tendon injury. He was set to impress the selectors in the LA Marathon but was forced to withdraw when he woke up on the eve of the race with a badly swollen knee.

“I had just done my last training run the day before and I could not believe it when I woke up and I just could not walk,” he said. “It was not serious in the end but it took a week to heal.”

Fagan’s career has been punctuated by injury and he admits that many of the problems were his fault.

“In the past, I tended to ignore the signs,” he said. “I would keep training and I would overtrain. I needed the money. I had to survive. I had to run the races. Ideally that should not be the situation. You should be in a position where you can pick and choose the races that will benefit you. But I had to run unnecessary races.

“It was not the best situation to be in but I am in a situation now where I don’t have to do that any more. I am on an international carding grant and that helps.”

Meanwhile Patrick Maher was yesterday reflecting on the race of his life at the Leevale Open Sports on Sunday when his time of 52.14 in winning the 400m hurdles secures qualification for the world junior championships and bettered the national junior record set by Ciaran McDunphy (52.2) in 1981.

“I was not surprised at all,” his coach at Leevale, John Sheehan, said. “I said he was ready to run 53 seconds. I know it was his first race of the season and it was very early in the year but his performances indoors in Nenagh when he was running around 50 seconds for 400m flat and his training sessions all indicated he was ready for a big race.

“He has been showing this type of promise. In the 100m hurdles, himself and Edmund O’Halloran had some great battles and he beat the hot favourite, Jason Harvey, when he won the senior title at the Irish Schools Championships last year. He was bitterly disappointed after that when he was not selected for the European Youth Olympics and even considered quitting but I convinced him his day would come. And it has.

“He now needs to get some good races and I would hope he will go to the junior international in Mannheim. That is a very good meet and all the top European juniors will be there. There is also an international in the UK.” A Leaving Cert student at Davis College, Mallow, he will be defending his 400m hurdles title at the Irish Schools Championships in Tullamore next June.