Relief and regret for Doyle and Healy - either side of Paris cut-off

Phil Healy found herself an agonising three ranking points outside the quota for the Olympic 200m. But Cathal Doyle is in for the 1500m

PRIDE AND PAIN: Phil Healy, smiles after her performance in the 200m race at the 70th annual Cork City Sports. Picture Chani Anderson

Cathal Doyle and Phil Healy. The numbers added up, the numbers fell just short. The door opened, the door slammed shut. Inside the quota and outside in the summer chill.

Let’s begin with Healy. When all the calculations were done, the Cork sprinter found herself an agonising three ranking points outside the 48-athlete quota for the 200m at Paris.

Healy will of course attend the five-ring circus as part of at least one relay team, but she also wanted to compete as an individual. Where relay partner Sophie Becker (400m) and Jodie McCann (5,000) were bumped onto the right side of the quota cut-off in the final list of qualifiers published by World Athletics last week, Healy, no more than Thomas Barr, did not make sufficient leaps.

“To be that close is a bit gutting,” said Healy after clocking a 23.34 season’s best at Tuesday’s Cork City Sports.

There was also perspective. Her diagnosis of Hashimoto's disease torpedoed her 2023 season. This time last year, she wasn’t far off releasing a retirement statement. It meant all necessary ranking points would have to be accumulated this year. A race against the clock, in every sense.

“In the end, I missed it by three points. I knew I needed to run a 23.2 at nationals, and obviously conditions weren't ideal,” she said of her 23.42 winning effort.

“If I did run 23.2, I would be over the line. It is disappointing that way because when I went to Tokyo I did the 200m, the 400m, and the mixed relay, so I am a little disappointed not to make it individually, and being so close, but it was a big ask to do it all in one year.

“I had no times on the board from last year whereas the majority of athletes do have. Nearly every race I ran this year had to count. There was no room for error.

“I am still heading to my second Olympic Games, and if you asked me this time last year, I was retiring from the sport, so getting to another Olympic Games is definitely very special.” 

For Cathal Doyle, the opposite. Four spots inside the 45-athlete quota for the 1,500m.

The 26-year-old Dubliner had dropped outside the top 45 during the European Championships in early June, an event he failed to qualify for, but an 11th hour dash for the line, which included three races in seven days around the continent, two victories and two lifetime bests, shoved him onto the Irish team for the French capital.

“Awh man, it was relief,” said Doyle of jumping into a qualification berth, “because I fell out of it for like two weeks around the time of Europeans when there were no races, so you are just sweating.

“I was guilty of checking the rankings everyday. Refresh, refresh, refresh. But I knew going into nationals I was safe.” 

MAKING THE CUT: Cathal Doyle of Clonliffe Harriers AC at the 123.ie National Senior Track and Field Championships at Morton Stadium. Pic: ©INPHO/Bryan Keane

Doyle has travelled a circuitous route to Paris. He failed to make either the World Indoors or European outdoors this year. He has no senior championship experience. And yet here he is, off to the biggest sporting event on the planet in a few short weeks.

“It is a weird one trying to explain to friends how I wasn't at Europeans but am going to the Olympics. It was probably a blessing in disguise. At the time I was devastated that I didn't make Europeans. I wanted to make World Indoors, didn't do that. Wanted to make European outdoors, didn't do that, and then to make the Olympics, that is the one I really wanted.

“There is a silver lining in everything. I got a good block of training during the Europeans and came back with a vengeance for the last 10 days of the qualifying window.” 

Doyle is having the season of his life. His PB of 3:34.09 when winning at the Paavo Nurmi Games last month is almost three seconds quicker than his then-PB from this month last year. He traces his jump to the British training group he joined over in Brighton last October.

“It is a cliche, but it is consistency. I am training with guys like Elliot Giles, Dan Rowden, and being around people like Jemma Reekie. Those kind of people lift you. Their standards were way higher than mine. You rise to them. No half-assing anything.

“We went for four weeks to Potchefstroom in South Africa in April, that changed my attitude to how I could train. I could train with Dan Rowden a lot harder than I thought I could. I wanted to be somewhere where I am not the top dog. I am just loving learning off all those guys everyday.”