Lombard tries new pastures in build-up to Athens

CATHAL LOMBARD’S build-up to the Athens Olympics starts in earnest tomorrow when he leaves for altitude training in Albuquerque.

But the Corkman insisted it’s with the European cross-country championships in mind he is making the trip to New Mexico.

He has just come off a phenomenal season that saw him post his qualifying standard at 5000m for next year’s Olympic Games - becoming just one of eight Irish athletes to have qualified at this stage - and make it to the world championships in Paris.

He sees the European cross-country championships in Paris as his big opportunity to claim his first major championship medal and he feels that living and training at altitude for the next five weeks could help bring the dream to fruition.

A solicitor by profession, the Leevale man has left his job in Dublin and returned to Cork where he now trains full time. But, these days, a massive jump in class means he must train on his own.

“It is not because I want to train on my own or anything like that. I would love a bit of company. But the sort of stuff I am doing now - well very few people in Ireland are doing it,” he explained.

Since linking up with Joe Doonan, the man who coached Catherina McKiernan to greatness, his training has taken on a new dimension. The quality work is of a very high intensity - the plyometric exercises and the sprinting is something very few middle distance runners in the country would be capable of doing.

“Distance runners don’t normally do that kind of work. Catherina (McKiernan) did it all right,” he explained.

It has certainly worked wonders for him. Olympic qualification has opened up his career. It means that he is now in a financial position to train full time. Nike have come on board to sponsor his gear and shoes and he has linked up with the Ray Flynn Management Organisation.

In fact he had his first race for them in Holland a couple of weeks ago. That was a a 6.67 km road race won by Assefa Mewegebu of Ethiopia, bronze medallist in the 10,000m at the Sydney Olympics and a training partner of Haile Gebrselassie.

Richard Limo, silver medallist in the 5,000m at the 2001 world championships, was second and Lombard finished seventh, in what was a world class field.

He has qualified at 5000m for the Olympics but is not content with that. Qualification at 10,000m has been his target since achieving that time and he had hoped he would do it at the world championships in Paris where he chose that event over the 5000m but it was an amazing race - a process of elimination.

“I did not get a performance out of myself in Paris. I felt I was getting tired at that stage of the season and a lot of the zip was gone,” he recalled. “I had left my best form behind me when I went to Paris. It had been a pretty hectic season up to that point.”

He still wants the qualifying standard for 10,000m and has singled out the Stanford Meet in May where his Leevale clubmate, Mark Carroll, set the national record a couple of years ago, for his attempt.