Ireland's Hanna: 'I was the only European mountain runner to beat the Kenyans. I know I can beat them, it’s just doing it on a more consistent basis'
Zak Hanna: Finished third in last year's World Championships behind two Kenyans
“Anytime you run for Ireland is a very, very proud moment,” says Zak Hanna, speaking in Innsbruck, Austria, ahead of today’s World Mountain and Trail Running Championships.
The 27-year-old has been here, amid the stunning scenery of the Tyrol, for the past week, acquainting himself with the suffer-fest course that awaits in today’s Vertical Uphill – a 7.1km race with more than 1000m of elevation gain, featuring an utterly sadistic 40 per cent gradient in the last half mile.
Hanna is one of the world’s best at this event, having finished fifth in last year’s World Championships and third at the Mountain Running World Cup, behind two Kenyans. Yet his achievements have, by and large, gone under the radar at home. He’s looking to change that.
He’s a student of his sport, and knows Ireland well that Ireland hasn’t had a world mountain running champion since John Lenihan in 1991. “I want to be the second world champion for Ireland,” he says.
It likely won’t be this year, but Hanna is edging slowly towards the summit of his sport, which seemed a remote possibility in his youth. He grew up outside Dromara, Co Down, amid the rugged terrain of the Mourne Mountains. He was a horse rider and cyclist in his teens, though did some track and cross country while at Dromore High School. In his early 20s, Hanna came back to running in a more serious way, joining Newcastle AC and coming under the guidance of Richard Rodgers, who still coaches him today.
In 2016, Hanna was invited to a trial race in Wicklow for the World Mountain Running Championships, and he didn’t give it a second thought, surprising himself by making the Irish team. Competing in the green singlet was a proud moment for him, but it drew cutting criticism from elsewhere.
Hanna’s family has a history in the Orange Order and he joined when he was 16, and remains a member. He describes himself as a “huge Rangers fan”, though when offered the chance to run for Ireland, he considered it a “no-brainer.” But as pictures circulated on social media of Hanna carrying the tricolour at the World Championships in Bulgaria, he received some scathing messages, with one calling him a “turncoat” and another threatening to get him removed from the Orange Order.
“But I wasn’t really worried what they think,” he says. “It was a case of, ‘I’m out doing what I want to do, and that’s the main thing.’ When I did my first trial race I never questioned whether there was a British trial. I just wanted to get on the Irish team.”
Throughout his life, Hanna rejected having his identity chiselled by others to fit a certain ideology. He went to cheer on Dromara in the Down junior football final last year, and has befriended many Kilcoo GAA players as they share a training area in Castlewellan Forest Park. He wasn’t brought up to dislike Catholics, and when it comes to the thorny issue of nationality and identity, he looks to Rory McIlroy and Ciara Mageean as good examples.
“You have to admire the way they handled the whole thing, they don’t get drawn into anything political,” he says. “It’s a thing in Northern Ireland: there is an identity associated with everyone but I go with the flow, I don’t pinpoint myself to any one identity. I let my running do the talking.” Sport has been a help in that regard, allowing Hanna to travel the world, crossing the divides of race, religion and national borders, finding common ground with different cultures.
“When I was younger, my dad used to work in Switzerland so I was always over and back and when you're traveling on your own, you do get involved in different cultures and meet so many people. You find at home it's always the orange versus the green, all that nonsense, but (sport) helped me a lot.
“In the Irish team, everyone just gets on with each other. It’s never a topic that's brought up. It shows you that when you take away the political and religious divide, everyone just gets on with each other. We're no different than our next-door neighbour.”
And when it comes to his home area, which has a blend of Catholics and Protestants, Hanna has long been in love with it. Two years ago, he quit his job and decided to give full-time running a go, moving to Italy for three months. But the homesickness got to him, and since then he’s been back in the Mourne Mountains, logging about 90 miles a week in training, giving this way of life everything he’s got.
He recently signed a contract with New Balance which allows him to run full-time. “I can commit more to the sport now and try get the best out of myself,” he says.
Hanna expects to tackle longer mountain races in the years ahead but says he has “zero interest” in ultra events. “When you have to go for a run and carry poles and the kitchen sink, I lose interest.” The months ahead will be busy. After the World Championships Hanna will fly to California for two races at altitude in Lake Tahoe, and he’ll then race every fortnight through the summer, from Portugal to France, Switzerland to Italy – taking on the best, hoping to become just that.
“In some races last year I was the only European mountain runner to beat the Kenyans,” he says. “I know I can beat them, so it’s just doing it on a more consistent basis. To get on the top step of a World Cup is a big aim of mine. I’m not there to make up the numbers.”
Given the unusually early timing of the World Championships, he’s not certain where his fitness is ahead of this afternoon’s race, but he’s about to find out. “In the last month, everything has come together nicely,” he says. “Now I’m just hoping I can deliver something special.”
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