Athletics: Israel Olatunde on track to star on 'the grandest stage of them all' 

The Irish star aims to make an impact in Paris this summer. 

Israel Olatunde. Pic: Sam Barnes, Sportsfile

Israel Olatunde was only six years of age, still half-a-dozen years away from the realisation that he wasn’t going to make it as a professional footballer, but watching Usain Bolt destroy the 100m field in the 2008 Olympics would stay with him.

Bolt was fully charged that night. Ricardo Thompson and Walter Dix both produced PBs to make the podium and yet the Jamaican’s world record run of 9.69 saw him finish 0.20 seconds ahead of the silver medallist from Trinidad and Tobago.

“All I remember is him with his arms outstretched and he was way ahead of everyone ,” said Olatunde who was promoting SPAR’s 28-year long sponsorship of the European Athletics Championships. “So just seeing that I was thinking ‘what’s going on here?’ 

“I was young and didn’t really know what was going on but that image really stuck with me later in life. That’s a dream of mine, to be on a stage like that and young Irish fans watching me as well, seeing me do what I love on the grandest stage of them all.” 

The next few months will decide on that.

Olatunde is a full-time athlete now having completed his computer science studies in UCD last year and the life of a full-time athlete has taken him to Florida for a three-week camp with his coach Daniel Kilgallon and training partners from here at home.

It’s a long way from his 16-17-hour days commuting from Dundalk to Belfield and then on to Tallaght AC for training. Now they have the time, the space and the weather to work on his craft, on the technical minutiae.

“It’s taking some time to get things right but that’s why we’re here on this camp, to get things right. We’re not scared to make mistakes. There are some things we’re working on that will definitely pay off later in the summer.” 

His appearance at the World Indoors in Glasgow in February, where a 6.57 in the 60m wasn’t enough to make a semi-final, has left him a tad behind some others in terms of prep for the outdoor calendar but he is up and running.

Ireland’s Israel Olatunde celebrates. Pic: Tom Maher, Inpho

A first outdoor run of the season was recorded over the weekend at the PURE Invitational in Florida where he ran a 10.64 in the 100m and 21.42 in the 200m, both of them wind assisted. He will open his European campaign at the Irish Milers in Belfast on May 11.

Olatunde is the 22nd European on the world rankings and that makes him a shoe-in for The Europeans in Rome in early June. Ideally, he would go there with the A-standard of 10.16 – and a new national best – but he won’t go chasing that just yet.

The goal is to time his best for the Italian capital and to add enough building bricks through the season to book a place at the Olympic Games in Paris which, for those in track and field, gets underway on August 1st at Stade de France.

This is the date ringed in everyone’s diaries.

“Of course, it’s Olympic year. I think every athlete is kind of dreaming of being on that start line in Paris. For me, there is a lot of work to be done, but all I need to do is do my best performances in training and in competition this season, see where that lands me.

“I need to be in the top 56 (ranking quota), or run under 10 seconds. I’m a little bit off the mark in both those aspects, but I’ve surprised myself in the past, surprised the world in the past, so why not this year again.” 

That surprise was a sixth-place finish in the 100m at the Europeans in Munich two summers ago when his 10.17 broke Paul Hession’s Irish mark. He went on to break the Irish 60m record and made a European U23 final last year but didn’t make the Worlds in Budapest.

Backing up Munich was always going to be a tough ask. He talked about “dark pockets and pockets of light” since but has the maturity to understand that no career is linear and countless greats have had their dips and troughs.

“I guess after a performance like that I was a bit naïve in thinking it would all be uphill (sic) there, like things were just going to kick off for me, but you forget that there is no journey that is a straight road.

“It is never going to be straightforward, there are going to be bumps in the road. You just have to keep going and that’s the main thing for me: things aren’t always going to be on the up and that’s okay.

“I’m still young and I still have a fire in me to keep improving and that’s what matters. You just have to keep knocking on the door and its eventually going to open. That’s something I have been working on with a sports psychologists, working on my self-confidence.” 

Israel Olatunde and Rhasidat Adeleke, Irish record-breaking sprint athletes, have launched SPAR’s European Athletics Championship campaign, which calls on the Irish public to show why we are known as the best fans in the world. To win a 3-day trip for two to hand deliver a SPAR care package of Irish comforts to the sprint stars at the 2024 European Championships in Rome, SPAR shoppers are being asked to send messages of support for Israel and Rhasidat. Details of SPAR’s Rome Comforts can be found on www.spar.ie or @SPAR_Ireland on Instagram with information on how to enter the competition.