In-form Nolan ready for shot at European medal in Madrid
The 28-year-old Offaly man bounced back from a disastrous start to his indoor season to post his qualifying standard for the weekend and underscore it with the second fastest ever run by an Irishman over 1,000m.
Yesterday he declared himself ready to challenge for a medal in Madrid, insisting he is in the best shape ever.
But he also admitted he travelled to Lievin last week for a 1,500m race with more hope than confidence.
“My confidence had taken a kicking,” he admitted.
“I went to Millrose (Madison Square Garden) for my first race and that was a disaster. I had just come down from altitude and maybe I got the flights wrong or was just race rusty but I ran 4:06 for the mile - a disaster.”
A trip to Sheffield the following week was almost as bad. He was knocked out in the heats of the 800m in 1:51 - his slowest in a long time.
“It was a nightmare,” he said.
“But I begged and pleaded with them to allow me into the 1,500m. They did and I finished second in 3:46. It salvaged something from the weekend. I felt relaxed and I think it helped get my confidence back.”
For what he likes to think was his first real race, he went to Madrid and the arena where the European indoor championships will be held.
“It was good to be back on a normal 200m track again and running against good opponents and I ran 3:41.91. It was an okay time and I felt okay.
“But two days later in Lievin, it was amazing. I ran the second fastest 1,000m by an Irishman (2:21.67) and walked away feeling I could have run faster.
“I looked around and there were fellows gawking and on their hands and knees and here I was thinking I could have run faster.”
And he could have. A field of 11 was too big and he found himself in last place after a bustling first lap.
“I was running on top of people. I decided to get out of there. I ran up on the outside. Mehdi Baala was setting a fierce pace and the field strung out pretty quickly. I was up in third or fourth position when that happened. I eventually finished fourth.
“I felt absolutely amazing - the best I have ever felt - and I like that slipstream running where you are in single file and everybody goes quick.
“It was only when I finished that I realised I was the only one fresh. The others were staggering around. I could have gone for another lap.”
Now he is hoping for more of the same in Madrid where he feels there will be no pressure on him at all.
“In fact people will be asking if I should be going there at all whereas I not thinking that way at all,” he said.
“I am thinking there is a medal there for me if I can run the same race as I did in Ghent five years ago.”
He still feels hurt over the treatment meted out to him after the Athens Olympics. He made the semi-finals of the 1,500m there coming off injury and was ridiculed by some sections of the media.
“I think I did the most courageous thing of my life,” he said.
“I was still injured in Athens yet I made it through to the semi-finals but I got hammered for it.
“That’s what happens to a lot of athletes. They are in the best shape of their lives, they run a couple of bad races, get ridiculed for it and they pull the season.
“But I have shown you can turn your season around if you persist. I have gone from the worst performance of my career to feeling as good as I have ever felt in just 10 days.
“I know if I am healthy and injury-free I can run well. I have hit form at precisely the right time for the Europeans.”
He loves a battle and the excitement of championship running, as he showed in Ghent where Mark Carroll did exactly the same to win the gold medal in the 3,000m.
“And I think Mark can do it again. He is a battler. When he is in form and injury-free he will take beating. I know the spotlight will be on Alistair (Cragg) but watch out for Mark. He has been there before. He knows how to race and the pressure had been taken off him.”
Both Nolan and high hurdler Peter Coghlan were added to the Irish team, to bring it to 16, for next weekend. Coghlan, the Irish record-holder, claimed his place when he ran 7.26 for the 60m hurdles in Clemson.
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