Where has Darragh McElhinney been and why is he back?

BACK IN THE PICTURE: Darragh Mcelhinney of Ireland during the official open training session ahead of the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 2025 at Japan National Stadium in Tokyo, Japan. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

Many times over the last two and a half years, Darragh McElhinney was asked questions for which he didn’t really have an answer: What’s up? Where have you been?

Ever since finishing fourth in the 2023 European Indoor 3000m final in Istanbul, he’s been absent from the major stage, struggling to reproduce top form, knowing something was wrong but unable to identify what it was.