Sarah Lavin on season of change: 'It's not life and death. I run and jump over stuff. But yeah, it's been hard, really hard'

After a summer of transition, the Irish hurdler has vowed Birmingham is not the end of the track for her. 

Ireland’s Sarah Lavin has vowed Birmingham is not the end of the track for her. Pic: ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy.

Her times arriving into Birmingham told something of a story. Stepping off the track early on Monday evening and eliminated at a first hurdle she has always cleared with ease, Sarah Lavin obliged in filling in the blanks.

The 32-year-old has run sub-13 for the 100m hurdles 52 times in her 13-year senior career. It’s a mark that doesn’t present her with the slightest difficulty in bettering. And yet in her eight outdoor races leading into this week’s Europeans, Lavin had not bettered 13.3 in a single one.

The short version of her 2026 story is that at the end of an unsatisfactory indoor season, she parted company with her coach of 25 years Noelle Morrissey. From there, she packed her bags and relocated to Hong Kong to link up with renowned hurdles coach John Coghlan.

That chapter lasted just nine weeks. The homebird in Lavin drew her back to Limerick. And so, after all that turbulence, she arrived into Birmingham without a coach.

A season’s best of 13.07 was pulled out. Insufficient, though, to deliver advancement.

There’d be no third consecutive European final appearance. There wouldn’t even be a semi.

Passing through the mixed zone afterwards, and in her usual articulate and expressive self, Lavin told the long and full version of her 2026 story.

“Noelle was coaching me for 25 years. It was a beautiful relationship. I don't know how many seven-year-olds start off with a coach and get to two world finals and four Europeans. There's always going to be a very special bond between us, and something that can't be replicated by potentially anything else in your life, and any other relationship,” Lavin began.

“I'm so grateful for all the good times that we've shared, Noelle and I. There's been such an input into each other's lives for such a long period of time. Just huge gratitude to that, to her.” 

Describing change as “uncomfortable” and the decision to change as “remarkably difficult”, Lavin saw the imperativeness for change at the end of an indoor season where she only once broke the eight-second barrier across nine races. It's a barrier, no more than 13 seconds, that had long become no barrier at all.

To her, it confirmed two years of standing still.

“I felt that I had stagnated for two years, and I hadn't run a PB indoors since 2024. I was faced with, if you don't do it in 2026, you can't make a change the year before the Olympics.

“After the indoors, it was so difficult, but I decided, and I have to do it for future me. And to know that's something I can live with myself that if 12.62 is the best time that I get, I know I'll have done everything and I won't just have maybe stayed comfortable or stayed safe. I'll have tried everything and opened every door possible.

“I've been exposed to so many world-class coaches in so many different areas. It's not anything about a coach, or it's not anything personal, or anything like that. With every decision you make, you just have to feel happy within yourself as an athlete and make the best decision for your heart so that you can live with it. As I said, future Sarah, who's 40/50 and to have no regrets.” 

It was this mindset that motivated the move to Hong Kong to work under Coghlan, who guided hurdler Jasmine Camacho-Quinn to Olympic gold in Tokyo and Cyréna Samba-Mayela to Olympic silver in Paris.

This ‘no regrets’ mindset also informed her decision to return home after nine weeks because “I just didn't feel it was working for me”.

“I went to Hong Kong and I guess for me it was probably really insightful. I'm obviously a homebird and doing nine weeks where maybe I only had one week of company for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, if it was yielding me results, I could live with that a lot easier.

“But I have fantastic friends and family, a gorgeous dog, and a life that is off the track too. And to be living in a different time zone, that's very difficult.

“Again, John Coghlan is a fantastic, world-class coach. He doesn't need me to say that. Nor does Noelle need me to highlight the accolades that we achieved throughout the years. It's just trying to find what can make me deliver the best possible performance for LA, and to live with no regrets.

“It's not life and death. I run and jump over stuff. But yeah, it's been hard, really hard because I care about this so much. And it hurts so much not to deliver [in Birmingham]. I think everyone watching will know there isn't a day that I don't give everything I have to the track. And I will always do that so long as I'm on a start line. I'll have poured everything into the preparation.” 

The plan is to find a new steering hand ahead of the 2027 season. The plan is to find a sub-13 performance before the close of the '26 season. The plan is to stay running and jumping over stuff right through to LA in the summer of ‘28.

“I think getting into the winter, where more time is probably afforded to people, I think that would be the fairest thing for everyone,” she said of locating a coach.

“I am going to continue racing. The hardest thing is coming to a championship without a coach. But a remarkable team behind [me] and yeah, there's a lot of good people out there that have chimed in over the last few weeks.

“I promise it's not the end, and far from it.”