Proud star Curley ready to fulfil marathon ambition

PAULINE CURLEY had long abandoned her hopes of ever fulfilling her dream of competing in the Olympic Games when she got a text message telling her she had been selected for Beijing.

“I was on holiday in Spain with my husband Adrian and son Emmett, and we were in an amusement park when I got the message,” she recalled.

“First I got a text and I thought it must be some sort of joke. Then I got the call from Patsy (McGonagle) and I was so shocked, I could hardly speak.”

Along with Thomas Chamney (800m) and Michelle Carey (400m hurdles), she was one of three athletes selected on B standards for the Olympic Games in a dramatic turnaround by the Olympic Council of Ireland.

Tomorrow morning (12.30am Irish time) she will line up alongside the likes of Paula Radcliffe — one of just a handful of amateur athletes competing at the Olympic Games in Beijing and, at 39, she will be among the oldest in the field.

She achieved the B standard and the chance to represent Ireland in the women’s marathon when she ran 2:29.01 in the Rotterdam Marathon last April.

Coached by Mick Hayden, who is a 2:21 marathon runner himself, she was encouraged to try for the Olympic A standard and her old coach, Robert Denmead, reentered the scene.

They thought about London but were not sure about getting a place there, so they switched their attention to Rotterdam.

Her preparations were badly hampered by illness throughout the month of January but they pushed ahead with the plans and tomorrow morning she will reap the rewards of her persistence.

“I was disappointed after Rotterdam because I knew I could have achieved the A standard there,” she said. “But I had settled into the race with a group of runners and was quite happy to run along with them. Then I left them but it was too late.”

“After the race I felt great but then I began to feel the effects of the whole thing. It took a lot more out me than I thought originally. I talked it over with Mick (Hayden) my coach and we decided to forget about it.

“I ran shorter races — half marathon and mini-marathons — and, to be honest, if I got this opportunity maybe a month earlier, I would have had serious reservations.

“But it is everyone’s ambition — every athlete’s dream — to compete in the Olympic Games, and here I am.”