Ciara Neville: 'Especially after an injury, you really learn who is there for you'
Limerick sprinter Ciara Neville is one of 12 Irish athletes who will be financially supported by the Jerry Kiernan Foundation in 2024. Picture: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan
There was a time when it came easy. It was the summer of 2019. Ciara Neville was just 19, and the Limerick sprinter had just run 100 metres in a blazing 11.33 seconds.
She was national senior champion, the second fastest Irishwoman of all time. Just up ahead were the Tokyo Olympics, her future laden with fast times and bright, shiny medals. At least that’s how it seemed.
By June 2021, everything was still rosy, Neville within the necessary cut-off on world rankings to reach the Tokyo Olympics. She just needed a couple more solid races to realise her dream. But in Turku, Finland, six weeks before the Games, it all unravelled.
During her warm-up, she felt a pop at the top of her hamstring. It wasn’t sore to run on – at least not then – so she did what every desperate, aspiring Olympian would do: she got in the blocks. The race passed by without pain, but Neville was puzzled by her pedestrian time of 11.86. Only when she woke up the next day did she realise what she’d done.
“I couldn’t bear the pain,” she says. “I could barely walk through the airport; I had to use my suitcase as a crutch.”
It was two weeks to Irish nationals, her last chance to secure ranking points. Neville rested up, rehabbed, but could only finish fourth, clocking 11.69. The Tokyo dream was over. “It was a horrible weekend,” she says.
An MRI scan showed a partial tear in the conjoint tendon of her hamstring, which had partially ripped off the bone. Neville got PRP (platelet-rich plasma) injections to accelerate healing and churned away in the gym, doing months of soul-crushing rehab. But in the end, it was for nothing.
In January 2022, she knew something was still amiss during a training camp in Tenerife. A run-of-the-mill session followed by a day’s rest saw her wake up barely able to walk. She saw Dr Jim O’Donovan at the Sport Ireland Institute, who sent her MRI results to a surgeon in England, Professor Fares Haddad. He told Neville that if they didn’t do an operation then to reconnect the tendon, it’d inevitably be needed at some point.
“I was like, ‘Please, now. Please, not all of this again.’” She sought an ocean of opinions before committing, her event making it a tricky decision. “I had to come to terms with the fact (the surgeon) said you might not make it back to 100% speed if it didn’t go as well as we hoped. If a rugby player gets back to 95%, it might seem like 100, but in a sport where it’s all about time, that was scary.”
She went under the knife in April 2022 and was back in the gym, crutches in hand, two weeks later. “I’d say people were looking at me going, ‘Can this girl just take a day off?’” she laughs. That October, on her 23rd birthday, she took her first, tentative steps back running, but it took another 10 months to get back racing.
The surgery left behind imbalances, which manifested in her ground contact times and stride length. Last August, she settled into the blocks in Bern, Switzerland, over two years on from her last race, and clocked 11.90 for 100m. She followed it with two more races before going back into winter training.
“It was great to be back on the line, being competitive and remembering what I loved about the sport – the thrill of race day. If anyone was watching, they’d recognise I wasn’t running like the athlete I was before, but hopefully when they see me this summer, I’ll look like my old self.”
Having finished at the University of Limerick last May, Neville has given athletics her full-time focus since. No longer does she have a scholarship to fall back on, while her professional contract with Puma ended last December. She was also dropped from funding by Athletics Ireland, and so she was thrilled to be named as a recipient of support from the Jerry Kiernan Foundation, which was set up by Kiernan’s friend Murt Coleman, who’s worked tirelessly to recruit sponsorship in recent years.
“It means so much,” says Neville. “When you’re trying to be a full-time athlete and especially after an injury, you really learn who is there for you. I’m very lucky and grateful to have their support.”
During the winter, she relished being able to “plough on like a normal athlete” under the watchful eye of coach Noelle Morrissey. In February, Neville won the Irish Universities indoor 60m title in 7.45, shy of her best of 7.30 but, crucially, another step forward. “I wouldn’t be popping the champagne, but it’s nice to see the progression. It’s one step closer.”
She spent the last few weeks training in Tenerife and plans to open her season in May. After three rocky years, the 24-year-old is closer than ever to her previous self. She also has a new appreciation for the simple act of lacing up her spikes.
“If I’m not happy with how a session goes, I say, ‘Well, I’m far better than I was this time last year.’ I’m really grateful for everyone around me supporting me on this journey and I hope when I’m on the start line, I can really say I’m back to the athlete I was. That’s what I’m aspiring to be this summer.”
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