Sarah Lavin: ‘Everyone is running out of their skin this year. You have to be prepared for that’
Irish athlete Sarah Lavin, who finished fifth in the final of the 60m hurdles in the World Indoor Athletics Championships last Sunday, was a popular visitor to the University of Limerick campus on Thursday evening. Pic Arthur Ellis
Not a day goes by without someone reminding Sarah Lavin about the Olympics. She just posted a personal best at the World Indoor Championships. She will compete at the European Championships in June. And still one mountain looms over all of it.
Such exhilaration is understandable. Everyone is looking forward, most of all the protagonists. An intense anticipation radiates through her every word. It is not that she takes any of it for granted. From 2014 to 2021, Lavin didn’t make a senior championship. In Glasgow last week she ran 7.90 seconds, finishing fifth in a race won by Devynne Charlton in 7.65 seconds, a 60m hurdles world record. In Belgrade two years ago, Lavin finished seventh. She is on the rise and that momentum ensures concentration is not centred on what she has achieved but what she might still achieve.
The Limerick star relishes the daily interactions, the children who repeatedly come up to her to boast about their own successes, the World Cup-like festivities with strong travelling support bearing face paint and flags that were on full display in Glasgow. Paris will be on another level.
“The fact that it is in Europe as well is beautiful because we will get a lot of people travelling out and a lot of kids getting to watch this and that is where dreams start,” Lavin says. “But you can’t run the race today or tomorrow. I am off until next week, I am not training at all this week and then I get back into training and the focus just becomes day-to-day. And we have to go to Rome before we go to Paris.” She knows precisely where she wants to go and the microscopic margins that will take her there. There is always a correction to be chased.
"My start, really, has been inconsistent throughout the years, particularly last year indoors, and we've worked really, really hard on my first four steps.
"You want to get eight steps into the first hurdle. My first four I've really nailed indoors and I'd say I need to be able to carry that speed now in between hurdle one and two. They are still getting that little bit away early on and while I tend to come back at the back end of the 100m hurdles race, I can't let anyone get too far ahead.
"I think it's going to take 12.49 to make that Olympic final which is massive. You almost need to be aiming there to see where the event is heading, everyone is running out of their skin this year, so you have to be prepared for that.”
As the season moves towards the outdoors, a spot in the 100m hurdles final this summer is a live possibility. Lavin has charted her course there with coach Noelle Morrissey. It demands a total commitment, from both of them. Morrissey found herself coaching through her own kids. Persevering is a challenge. When they head away to a training camp later this month, she will have to take leave from her full-time job.
“She had to employ someone at the weekend to work for her in Easons, Nenagh,” Lavin explains. “She owns that. She has to run that. I’m really lucky to have her but those two weeks are a huge sacrifice for her.
“I’m getting to live out my dream, but she is making these sacrifices for me so I’m incredibly lucky to have her, on and off the track. She goes above and beyond the normal calls of duty for a coach.”
Together they have pursued one ultimate aspiration. It is why there were mixed feelings about her recent final race. A gnawing sense of wanting that little bit more and having a bit more to give. The ultimate goal is satisfying both.
“The whole indoor season, you're thinking about world indoors, so I have to be incredibly grateful to have run three of my best races ever. And when you look back, I guess what still remains is what you don't express and what you don't get out of yourself.
“The load maybe was slightly high coming in, but it is very hard for me to be able to predict that until it was too late to know. Good lesson learned but, at 29, how many more lessons do you have to learn?
“It was a fantastic championship and to go from seventh last time, fifth this time. It is just thinking to yourself, right, how do I find that 0.1 and ultimately, I will have to keep them a bit closer than 0.1, 0.15 outdoors.
The second half is my strong part but you can't let anyone get away so I think between hurdle one and two will really be a good focus and yet, I said to Noelle: the one thing I wanted out of indoors was to make my start more consistent.
“It did become more consistent and my times obviously showed huge consistency. But if you want to medal, you almost have to PB through every round. In an ideal world, you are looking at going 7.90 in the morning, 7.85 in the semi-final and 7.80 in the final.”
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