Sarah Lavin: "I was underwhelmed by my performance and that's the truth"

The Limerick athlete reflects on the Paris Games, returning to surreal levels of support and what's to come afterwards

Virgin Media Television ambassadors Sarah Lavin and Thomas Barr pictured as VMTV's coverage of top-class athletics continues in the coming weeks with the conclusion of the Wanda Diamond League. 

Everything pointed towards a big one. Every metric Sarah Lavin could measure suggested an Irish record was coming her way in Paris, the kind of time that’d put her into an Olympic final. But it just didn’t happen.

The 30-year-old Limerick athlete clocked an Irish 100m hurdles record of 12.62 in the world semi-final last year and needed 12.52 in Paris to make her first global outdoor final. But in her bid to find the extra fraction, she ended up getting too close to the eighth barrier and clattered it with her trail leg, Lavin still running the fourth-quickest time of her career, 12.69.