The Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman Award for February: Sarah Lavin (Athletics)
“Will we go to the track?” Ollie Lavin only has to hear the suggestion and he loses his mind, mainly because he gets so many hugs from the group of athletes he meets there.
Has he tried hurdling yet? “He has, but he’s very much treat-focused when it comes to his efforts.” No treats, no effort? “Pretty much.”
Sarah Lavin, Ollie the cavapoo’s human, is quite treat-driven too, but not in a biscuit sense. More along the lines of knowing that if she gets everything right over those hurdles, there could be personal bests, national titles and the like waiting for her at the finish line.
At Abbotstown last month, the Limerick woman collected a remarkable 19th senior title at the National Indoor Championships. To secure that victory, she had to hold off the challenge of her buddy Kate O’Connor in the final of the 60m hurdles.
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The first of those 19 senior titles came back in 2013. There have been few more consistent – or faster – athletes in the history of Irish sport.
She loves it as much now as when she started out. “It’s when you go into competition and you have all the preparation done, when you allow your mind and your body to be free and kind of go on autopilot,” she says. “It’s hard to describe. It’s like an effortless kind of joy.
“I’m 31 and I’m still living out my childhood dream. Still able to go on the world stage and perform against the best. How special is that? I never take it for granted. And it really is a joy to do this. To still believe that my best performance is ahead of me. The chase of that euphoric day.”
We suggest to her that hurdling and its required technique looks hellishly hard. It tees up the next question: do you ever think you should have picked an easier sport?
“All the time,” she howls. But there are no regrets over her life choices. “What I love is how objective it is as a sport; nothing can deny you. If you run faster than you ever did before, it’s not up for debate. If you’re a rugby player or a footballer and you have the match of your life, what makes it the match of your life? In athletics, the clock doesn’t lie, there’s nowhere to hide.”
Mind you, as a Manchester United supporter, Lavin is reluctant to talk football. “It’s been a rough time. I think back to the glory days, Ronaldo, Rooney, Van Nistelrooy. I remember as a kid when people were Leeds supporters and I was like, ‘why would anyone pick Leeds?’. God, being a Man United supporter is probably the equivalent nowadays. At least I’ve had the Limerick hurlers to keep me going.”
Unlike United this season, Lavin is heading for Europe having earned her place in the Irish team that will compete in next week’s World Indoor Championships in Poland. O’Connor will, of course, be one of her teammates. Lavin laughs off suggestions that the technical tips she gave her pal ahead of the 60m hurdles in the nationals, when O’Connor registered a personal best, might have proved costly. Any regrets?
“Ha, no! We’re not rivals, we’re friends. We just talk about different things – I think we learn a lot from each other just from being together. Kate is younger than me, so I have more championship experience. But she has that freedom of youth, that fearlessness, so that transfer of mindset is really, really lovely and valuable.”
Having put in the hard yards at training, she has tapered off ahead of the World Indoor Championships. It’s now about getting her head right. “At this point, it’s about doing things that keep you happy. We have all these wearable devices, you can get so focused on your resting heart rate, your HRV (heart-rate variability), your respiratory rate, your temperature, all these things. But ultimately, it’s about being around people who make you happy. Whether that’s your family, your friends or your dog. That’s the performance enhancer: find joy and fulfilment in the build-up and take that to the championship.”
“The hardest part is getting there. Over the last four years I’ve been in six major finals and I’ve been fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh. It’s just margins. It’s having the belief that your time will come, to keep the faith.
“Ah, sorry, that’s Ollie again, he wants a walk,” she says as we’re rudely interrupted by the sound of an impatient cavapoo. A walk to the track? “Probably.” There, he will, needless to say, be expecting treats, while his human fine-tunes her efforts towards reaching that euphoric day.
