Paul Healion:PAUL HEALION, who has died aged 31, was one of Ireland's top amateur cyclists, winning national championships on road and track on several occasions. He was a member of Ireland's team pursuit squad, which has been targeting a medal in the London 2012 Olympic Games.
He was due to ride with the seven-man Irish national team in the Tour of Ireland, which began yesterday. In May of this year he competed in the green jersey in the FBD Insurance Rás, his biggest triumph coming when he outsprinted four-time Tour de France stage winner Jaan Kirsipuu and 84 others to the line in Castlebar.
That surprise victory came three months after he, David O’Loughlin, David McCann and Martyn Irvine improved their own national team pursuit record at the track World Cup meet in Ballerup, Copenhagen. It earned them fifth place in the competition, following on from seventh in the previous World Cup in Beijing, and showed they were moving closer to their goal of qualifying for the London Olympics.
“It is a big tragedy,” said Seán Kelly, who worked with him when Healion rode with the international Murphy Gunn-Kelly team in 2007. “He was going very well. As regards London, the team have certainly been going in the right direction all the time. And when you look at his performances this year, he was certainly going better than in other years . . . so he too was going in the right direction.”
In June he took the national criterium champion title when he sprinted to victory in the Stephen Roche Grand Prix in Dundrum. Roche’s son Nicolas had returned for the race but was closely marked and finished fifth. Afterwards he tipped Healion as one to watch in the national road race championships, which took place four days later, although Roche would go on to take that title and wear the distinctive champion’s jersey in the Tour de France.
“I met him a few years ago when we did some races together,” he said. “Paul was one of the big riders in Ireland – very talented and strong. But not only that, he was a very friendly guy with whom I always had a good chat when I was back in Ireland. This is a very sad story and makes you realise how quickly life can change. He was very young.”
The son of Mary and Paul snr, the latter a former champion hammer thrower who died in 2006, Paul Healion was born in 1978 and grew up in Dunboyne, Co Meath. After school he took a tool-making apprenticeship, but more recently worked part-time in Supervalu in Trim to support his cycling.
After winning county medals in hurling, he took up cycling and began racing with Stagg’s Lucan. He then moved to the Amev Irish Road Club and spent many years with that club. He underlined his talent at 20 years of age when he finished third in the Irish national time trial championships, an individual race against the clock.
Healion continued to work hard and came back two years later to win the title outright, taking it once again in 2008. He also took the criterium championships in 2001 and again this year, as well as multiple track titles.
His strong performances helped him secure a place on the Driving Force Logistics Continental squad in 2005. The following season saw him move to Team Murphy and Gunn-Newlyn Group, and he placed second in the prestigious Lincoln International Grand Prix in Britain. In more recent years Cycling Ireland’s focus on getting a track team for the London Olympics saw him spend increasing time on the track, and during training sessions in the velodrome in Aigle, Switzerland, Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) president Pat McQuaid watched him in action.
“The more I think about it, the more tragic it becomes,” he said at Thursday’s funeral. “A guy like that, who enjoyed riding the bike, enjoyed riding for Ireland . . . for him to be taken away in a split second is very sad. Obviously his wife, his family, his friends, clubmates and the Irish cycling family have suffered a very big loss.”
His friend Stephen Halpin was one of many who left a tribute on the Irishcycling.com website this week. “He was one of the most upbeat and generous friends I have ever had and ridden with,” he wrote. “He was always the first man to give advice or help on and off the bike. He inspired me to always give 100 per cent . . . not just in cycling, but in everything I do. He will stay in my heart and mind forever.”
The victim of a car crash, Paul is survived by his wife Ann, his mother Mary, and brothers and sisters Damien, Kevin, Emma, Niamh and Nora.
Paul Healion: born June 3rd, 1978; died August 16th, 2009