Sarah Lavin: ‘Everyone is running out of their skin this year. You have to be prepared for that’

The Limerick sprinter just posted a personal best at the World Indoor Championships and is aiming to make an impact in a season that will peak in Paris.

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.