All about timing as O'Connor sets sights on 3,000m steeplechase final 

TIMING IS EVERYTHING: 3000m steeplechaser Ava O'Connor poses for a portrait during the European Games team day for Team Ireland. Pic: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

Two PBs at the back end of the US college track season would suggest that things are going pretty well for Ava O’Connor at Adams State. That said, the 19-year-old from Laois did get her timing horribly wrong in the weeks since.

No sooner was she home in Emo than word came through that her teammates had secured an invite to the White House for College Athlete Day, vice-president Kamala Harris welcoming a crew that included her Irish teammate Stephanie Cotter.

“Kinda (gutted) cos you don’t often get the chance to meet the vice president and the president of the United States,” O’Connor admitted. “I think I’d been home two or three days and then the team was invited over.” 

That aside, life in the US is treating her just fine.

Both of those personal bests were recorded at the same meet, at the Cougar Athletic Stadium in Azusa, California, back in April. She posted a 4:20.04 in her 1,500m and a 10:07.96 in the 3,000m Steeplechase.

Few here in Ireland saw her progressing up from the 1,500m before she started her scholarship but O’Connor has it in her mind to have a crack at the 5k as well. And she hasn’t forgotten her cross country roots either.

Colorado has plenty going for it. Alamosa, a town roughly the size of Portlaoise, is almost 8,000 feet above sea level. That altitude was a culture shock for someone who hails from one of Ireland’s flattest counties, but it’s a reality she embraces now.

“It wasn’t too bad at first doing the easier runs but the first time I really noticed it being tough was the long runs. To mile six was okayish. You still felt like you had to work a lot harder with your breathing. After that it just felt like breathing through a paper straw.” 

Hall of Fame head coach Damon Martin, who learned his trade under the legendary Joe Vigil, is the man in charge and there has been a greening of the college that goes back to Shane Healy’s time there in the 1990s.

Cotter aside, she is far from alone Stateside. James Dunne, a clubmate at Tullamore Harriers, is part of the Grizzlies setup and the Tyrone twins Eilish and Roisin Flanagan have enjoyed their own successful careers racing in the dark green singlet.

“That did influence my decision to go there, just seeing how well James had progressed there, and especially Eilish and Roisin and how much they progressed. Steph Cotter being there was a big influence on it too.

“Was it the year before Covid, the Euro (U23) Cross Country in Portugal, 2019? Just seeing how well Eilish and Roisin and Steph done for Ireland. They were under Damien Martin’s training and they were doing really well on the track so I was thinking why not go there.” 

Adams State won the NCAA Division II Cross Country and Indoor Track and Field titles last season, hence the invite to Pennsylvania Avenue, and Cotter’s capture of the national cross country and indoor titles in the mile and 3k played a huge part in that.

The Cork woman isn’t the only Irish athlete blazing a trail on the circuit, of course.

Rhasidat Adeleke has just won the 400m NCAA Division I title and O’Connor, who last ran with her at the European Youth Olympics in Azerbaijan in 2019, fires out words like ‘insane’ and ‘phenomenal’ to sum up what the Tallaght woman is achieving.

“For Irish people it would be like winning an All-Ireland final at a full Croke Park,” she said, leaning on a family history that saw her grandfather Christy O’Connor play an U21 football All-Ireland with Laois in 1964. “That's how big it is out there. Crazy.” 

Her own days since coming home have been mostly spent ticking over, running around Emo Court or linking up with her old coach Damian Lawlor in Tullamore. There was a day or two helping out with the medal ceremonies at the All-Ireland Schools championships too.

That pace kicks up a fair few gears today when she runs for Ireland in the final of the 3,000m Steeplechase at the European Games at the Silesian Stadium in Chorzow and she’s hoping to wrap this summer up with the European U23 Championships in Finland.

“Then I'll take a little bit of a break to recover. I'll get back out to the States as soon as possible after.”