Whatever happened to Gina Akpe-Moses?

Athletics is a sport with a short memory. One sub-par season and the spotlight soon shifts to someone younger, someone faster.

Gina Akpe-Moses at the 2018 European Athletics Championships in Berlin

Maybe it’s distance, the fact she lives and trains in London – out of sight and so often out of mind for those in Irish athletics. Maybe it’s time, the fact her biggest achievements date back to 2017, 2018, when she was just a teenager. Whatever the reason, the question has been posed time and again in recent years: Whatever happened to Gina Akpe-Moses?

This is a sport with a short memory. One sub-par season and the spotlight soon shifts to someone younger, someone faster. Akpe-Moses will turn 25 this month, and it’s coming up on seven years since she won the European U-20 100m title, and almost six since she helped Ireland to 4x100m silver at the World U-20 Championships. The years since have been chaotic, inconsistent and sometimes cruel.