Kilkenny teen Molly Daly chasing Irish athletics history at World Relays
2026 has been a breakthrough year for Kilkenny's Molly Daly. Pic: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
It’s close to 10,000km from Kilkenny to Gaborone, Botswana – not the kind of trip you find many Leaving Cert students making at this time of year. But for Molly Daly, it’s very much worthwhile.
Because not only could the 18-year-old sprinter earn her first senior cap for Ireland at this weekend’s World Relays. She could also create a small piece of Irish athletics history.
Daly is part of the Irish squads for the women’s 4x400m and mixed 4x400m and if she lines out in either, it will mark the first time ever that three generations from the same family have been capped internationally for Ireland.
Her father, Rob, represented Ireland 13 times at senior level, most notably when winning World Indoor 4x400m bronze in 2004 alongside Gary Ryan, David Gillick and David McCarthy.
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Her mother, Fiona, was also a 400m specialist who was capped twice for Ireland in 1996 while Fiona’s dad, Robert Norwood, represented Ireland over 400m in an international match in West Germany in 1974, also competing in a 4x400m alongside Fanahan McSweeney and Eamonn Coghlan.
The academic materials have been brought with her to Botswana, Daly spending her mornings at the track and her afternoons studying during the preceding Irish camp in Stellenbosch, South Africa. Her parents have also made the trek to the southern hemisphere, taking their first long-haul flight since their honeymoon 20 years ago.
Granddad Robert, meanwhile, will be back home in Kilkenny this weekend, watching from afar and looking after Molly’s younger sisters Ellen and Julia, who are also promising athletes with Kilkenny City Harriers.
In recent weeks, Molly has been training and living alongside seasoned Olympians like Sharlene Mawdsley and Sophie Becker, soaking up all she can. “I’ve never been to anything like this so stepping up is an amazing experience,” she says. “Seeing how all the senior athletes live is so different to what I’d been used to. I picked up so much.”
For her parents, how do the nerves of watching her run compare to those experienced in their own careers? “You’d prefer to be running yourself,” admits Fiona. “It’s pure torture, if you want the truth.” But that feeling is also mixed with “massive pride,” adds Rob.
“It’s a great opportunity for her,” says Fiona. “It’s great for her development to get this kind of exposure and it’s a nice ease into [the senior ranks] as a relay to one day, potentially, doing it as individual.”
It’s been a breakthrough year for Molly, who smashed the championship record to win the Irish U-20 indoor 400m title in March with 53.74, close to Rhasidat Adeleke’s Irish indoor U-20 record of 53.44. That qualified her for the World U-20 Championships in Oregon in August, and this weekend should offer valuable experience on her journey there.
“I’ve always wanted to do the 400m, even since I was younger,” she says. “Both my parents were 400m runners and I looked up to them.” Her parents met through athletics, getting to know each other on a schools’ international trip. They chose different paths in their university years – Fiona going on scholarship to Florida State University and Rob attending UCD, developing into an international sprinter under coach Paddy Fay.
The couple moved from Dublin to Kilkenny in 2008, the year Molly was born, and it was almost inevitable that their daughters would find their way to athletics. Success came fast for Molly, who won a national U-12 title over 600m. In the years after, she dropped down in distance, with Fiona coaching her for sprint hurdles before handing over to Rob, who focused on developing her speed over 200m ahead of her eventual move to 400m.
“That 400m torture is best served as late as possible,” laughs Fiona.
Rob writes the training programme, sending it to his old teammate Gary Ryan for feedback, while Noel Sugrue oversees her strength and conditioning. Given Molly’s results this year, the door was open for a US scholarship but she will instead enrol at an Irish university later this year, her choice not yet confirmed.
Her parents have seen the serious side of the sport at its elite end and while that way of life could be further up the tracks for Molly, their focus for now is on making sure it’s enjoyable. “She just loves it,” says Rob. “She loves the training but she loves the whole network around it, all her friends at training and going away to the junior camps.”
And Molly will be glad to have them trackside in Botswana. “They’re definitely my number one supporters,” she says. “It wouldn’t be the same without them here.” If she’s named in one of the starting line-ups for Saturday's heats, she is set to write a fresh chapter in her family’s proud athletics history.
“To be up with all the senior athletes, running for Ireland is really my dream,” she says. “To run at senior level at 18 is amazing, so I’m just taking it all in, gaining lots of experience, and hopefully I’ll have many more like this to come.”
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