Building strength and perfecting race process is helping Sarah Healy find consistency

In early June, she claimed her first ever Diamond League victory in Rome, and there was a valuable lesson from that.

Wed, 30 Jul, 2025 - 06:43

Cathal Dennehy

Right now, things are good. The best they’ve ever been in Sarah Healy’s career. Break this year down any which way and the metrics all come back smelling of roses. But as the 24-year-old knows, it’s not always like this.

In 2025, Healy turned in her two best ever performances at senior championships: winning 3000m gold at the European Indoors followed by a sixth-place finish at the World Indoors. She has run Irish indoor records at 1500m and 3000m and set lifetime bests at those distances outdoors, sitting second on the respective Irish all-time lists behind Ciara Mageean and Sonia O’Sullivan.

Healy has raced at five Diamond Leagues and only once finished outside the top three: a seventh-place finish in Eugene where she ran 3:57.20 for 1500m – still quicker than she’d run before this year. But the most notable statistic of all? Healy has run 14 races this year and not a single one has been bad. So, what’s behind the consistency?

“I guess just getting physically stronger and better means that my average day is better now,” she says. “I haven't really run a race where I haven't run under four minutes this year outdoors so it's kind of making that the norm. And then hopefully when I have a really good day, it'll be even faster. But as well, [I’m] kind of perfecting my race process in terms of knowing what works for me and what doesn't.”

When she reflected on Eugene, the race she was “least happy” with, Healy identified an old error. “My approach was far more time-focused and it just didn't really put me in as good a mental state.”

In early June, she claimed her first ever Diamond League victory in Rome, and there was a valuable lesson from that, too.

“It was my season opener for 1500m so I really didn’t have any pressure or expectations. I just tried to enjoy it.”

That relaxed attitude helped her to victory. “I just tried to soak it in because winning Diamond Leagues is extremely rare and even just winning races as a professional athlete is rare. So you have to enjoy it when you can.”

Healy says it’s “kind of funny” to see herself atop the Diamond League 1500m standings and she has two more outings planned on the sport’s top circuit: in Silesia on August 16 and the final in Zurich on August 28. In Paris last month, she lowered her 1500m best to 3:57.15, putting her ninth in the world this year and within reach of Mageean’s Irish record of 3:55.87.

Healy, like so many in the athletics world, was rocked by the recent news of Mageean’s cancer diagnosis. “It's really shocking to hear when someone so young and so healthy faces something like that,” she says. “We know that she's such a fighter. She said herself (she would) take that fight into what she's facing now. We were all just thinking of her and behind her. It really puts a lot of things in perspective.”

This weekend, Healy will be back on track at the 123.ie National Track and Field Championships in Santry, hoping to defend her title over 800m. With just over six weeks until the World Championships, Healy is in a great position. But she knows her recent form will count for nothing in Tokyo.

“The big goal would be to make the final, I've never made a [global outdoor] final before and in Paris, I didn't even make the semi-final. A final would be a huge step forward and I know I'm capable. I just need to get out there and do what I've been doing all season, take it one race at a time. I definitely won't be taking anything for granted.”

In recent years Healy has put considerable work into her mental strength, and it’s paying clear dividends. “I realised I need to take the pressure off and not think about the outcome so much, more just trying to perfect my process for racing,” she says. “I’m at a really nice phase of my career where I’m still improving a lot, but I’ve kind of got nothing to lose and everything to gain.”