Jerry Kiernan: If Ciara failed, I would blame myself

It was 5 am on Friday morning when Jerry Kiernan first woke. The adrenaline was starting to flood his system a full 12 hours before his most talented protégée, Ciara Mageean, took to the track in Amsterdam.

“I couldn’t get back to sleep,” says Kiernan. “The thing with me is: if Ciara failed I would blame myself. That makes me a failure, and that would be a difficult thing to live with. I’d be questioning absolutely everything and I’m at the stage in life where I don’t like to be questioning myself too much.”

Ever since the day Mageean approached Kiernan at a national relays event in 2013, asking him to take control of her career, he has felt the burden that comes from handling such a special talent.