Marcus Lawler: 'It's amazing the amount of people that thought I was gone'

WELCOME BACK: Marcus Lawler of Clonliffe Harriers AC, Dublin, on his way to winning the men's 200m final. Pic: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile.

Welcome back to the stage, please, Marcus Lawler.

The applauding crowd wear a surprised expression. It’s a reaction that in no way surprises Lawler. He knows exactly what they’re thinking. They’re all thinking the same.

“It is amazing the amount of people that thought I was gone, or were wondering would I ever come back to the standard I was at,” says the 30-year-old sprinter.

The stage Marcus Lawler is being welcomed back onto is the major championship one. First-ever European Indoors involvement.

First-ever mixed relay involvement. A welcome return to the green singlet two-and-a-half-years after his last appearance.

The interim two seasons were spent off Broadway. Two seasons of rejection and stagnation. Two seasons of little league meets and injury setbacks.

Pre-Tokyo, Lawler was a World University Games bronze medalist. He was 20.40 for his favoured 200m. A regular on the international stage. A regular in green.

Post-Tokyo, there was a regular absence of form. That fed an absence of funding. Rehab and chasing a return to his old self became his frustrating regulars.

“In Tokyo itself, I was eliminated in the heat, but I ran a season's best on the day and felt the whole experience was quite positive,” Lawler begins.

“During that time you think, ‘ah shur, I'll be back on the plane in three years and I'll better that’. But I didn't even get on the plane for Paris, never mind trying to better what I did in Tokyo.”

Men's 200m medallists, Marcus Lawler of Clonliffe Harriers AC, Dublin, gold, centre, Adam Murphy of Tinryland AC, Carlow, silver, left, and Luke Timlin of Crusaders AC, Dublin, bronze, right. Pic: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile.

Lawler made a coaching change post-Tokyo. Linked up with Shane McCormack, the guiding hand behind Phil Healy. They went to the 2022 European Championships where Lawler failed to emerge from his 200m heat. They dipped a toe in the 400m.

In April 2023, Lawler’s Achilles tendon flared up and floored him for 12 weeks. At the end of a largely write-off 2023 outdoor season, he returned to the coaching hand of his mother, Patricia, herself an international sprinter back in the day.

“Shane put massive time and massive commitment into me, I can’t stress that enough. He did plant the seed of the 400m, which I’m now benefiting from.”

2024 was similarly interrupted. In his first indoor race of the year, the Achilles tendon stirred further trouble. Another 12 weeks out. In May, he pulled his groin when running the second leg of a successful 4x100m qualifying attempt for that summer's Europeans in Rome.

He didn’t make the plane for Rome. Or Paris either.

Back in 2013, the Carlow native was on the plane to Rieti with Phil Healy and Sarah Lavin for the European Juniors. Lavin won silver, Healy and Lawler missed out on a medal by one place.

The three sprinters graduated to the senior ranks together. They went to Tokyo together. But come Paris, where Lavin and Healy made Olympic semi-final and finals respectively, Lawler was stuck in neutral.

“They are my friends and my teammates. I'd be delighted to see them do well, and they, and so many others, are nearly inspiring me to keep doing my work so hopefully the door will someday open for me again. Helped me keep at it and keep going.” 

His graph shook off the gathered dust and began to shift at the dying light of last summer. He clocked 20.56 over 200m on a community track in London, his fastest time since 2019. There was a 100m lifetime best too.

At the recent national championships, he ran a 200m indoor PB of 20.74. It bought him his first indoor gold in nine years. A week and a half earlier, he ran an outright 400m PB of 47.03. The latter posting bought him a seat on the plane to Apeldoorn and has him primed for involvement in Thursday’s straight final of the 4x400m mixed relay.

All those postings taken together would confirm that Lawler, who turned 30 last Friday, has not alone rediscovered his best, but is reaching previously unscaled heights. His ceiling has not yet been hit.

“It looks that way. I am in the shape of my life. I thought I would have broken my 200m outdoor PB at the end of last summer, but it didn't happen. I was running out of time and running out of races because it was coming into September and it was very difficult to get into races because I was being declined a lot of places as I didn't have any form. I was being refused lanes.

“I was getting into really small meetings in England and that’s where I was running well. Very grateful for them.

“You have your times and goals in mind going forward. I want to prove to myself and those who stuck by me that I can do them. It is not made any easier then when funding gets cut and services get reduced. That is frustrating because they are really important things that you need to perform to a really, really high level.”

Such is the medal-contending level Irish relay teams are currently operating at, forcing your way onto one of those teams, as he has done for this week’s European Indoors, is one avenue to restoring Sport Ireland funding.

This week’s European Indoors also carry perfect symmetry to his mam competing at the same event, over the same distance, 40 years ago.

“It means everything to me to pull on an Irish singlet again. People thought I was nearly gone away. I know in this sport you can become just as good as your last race. Irrelevant might not be the right word, but that’s what you become very quickly. I wasn't hitting the heights, but I had my reasons.

“Never thought of winding down, albeit it was frustrating. You can't just anoint yourself with form. The biggest thing is keep knocking on the door, keep turning up.

“I felt I could get back, even though I seemed to be a long way off it. I always turned up. I put myself on the line even when I wasn't in the best of form running-wise. And even though it wasn't an enjoyable time, always running with a smile on your face. You have to be enjoying it, and I'm definitely enjoying it now.

“Age doesn't scare me at all. In the commentary [at the Irish indoors], they were calling me an old man, but I am definitely still here and definitely in it for another Olympic cycle.” 

Welcome back, Marcus Lawler.