Athletics championships often leave a nagging question of what might have been

There is a photograph of a frighteningly young and slightly heavier me running around the old Belfield track alongside Eamonn Coghlan. God knows how these things work but it showed up on one of those timeline things on my phone this week, a veritably ancient blast from the past.

The clue as to when exactly it was lies on the logo of my T-shirt, a small gift from my father brought home from the first World Indoor Athletics Championships, staged in the Hoosier Dome in downtown Indianapolis, in March of 1987.

Which meant this was probably a few months later, early that summer, and if memory serves me well Coghlan was in Belfield for a sponsor photoshoot with Avia (remember them?) and politely agreed to let me tag along for a few 70-second quarters towards the end. At age 16, versus Coghlan at age 34, it was a brief and everlasting running lesson.

The photograph had been forwarded on again a few years ago, and part of the wonder in looking back at it now is if Coghlan took any note of my T-shirt, given his own experience at those World Indoor Championships.

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This, by way of reminder, was one of the smallest and arguably most successful Irish athletics teams of all time. It consisted of Coghlan and Marcus O’Sullivan, both in the 1,500m, and Frank O’Mara and Paul Donovan, both in the 3,000m: four athletes, two events, and in the end they came away with two gold medals, one silver, and a still nagging question of what might have been.

There are some fresh echoes of that question too after the 10-strong Irish team which competed at last weekend’s World Indoor Championships in Glasgow, where despite two impressive fifth-place finishes, one national record, and Sharlene Mawdsley’s widely considered harsh disqualification after qualifying for the 400m final, in truth no Irish medal hope came close to materialising.

Every nagging question of what might have been is often tempered by the notion these chances will come around again, as if some sort of eternal circle, only that doesn’t always ring true.

By March of 1987, Coghlan was already renowned as The Chairman of the Boards, by then winning 52 indoor mile or 1,500m races since his college days in Villanova, and unquestionably the gold-medal favourite. Just a few weeks before Indianapolis he won a record-equalling seventh Wanamaker Mile, running 3:55.91 and outkicking O’Sullivan on the final lap.

Making the final should have been the least of Coghlan’s worries, only in his Friday morning heat, he tripped and tumbled on to the track – after clipping, it seemed, the leg of the lanky German Dieter Baumann (remember him?)

Though regaining his stride and moving back into third Coghlan then eased up on the line, allowing Baumann to pass again, plus the Canadian David Campbell, and Coghlan ended up fifth – one place outside qualifying for the final.

Despite an initially successful appeal to the track judge, the IAAF jury of appeal then overturned that decision, so Coghlan was out – part of the wonder there being we’ll never know how he would have fared against O’Sullivan, who went on to win gold.

The next day O’Mara and Donovan went better again to win gold and silver in the 3,000m, and that team wasn’t done yet. O’Sullivan defended his title twice, in 1989 and 1993, and in between O’Mara won a second World Indoor gold in 1991.

Only Coghlan, for a variety of different reasons and mainly injury, never got another shot at a World Indoor title. There is no guarantee these chances come around again, in any sport, only after her experience in Glasgow last weekend, Sarah Lavin is even more steadfast in her belief that hers eventually will.

Lavin’s chances of winning a medal in Glasgow weren’t helped by the fact it turned out to be the fastest race in the history of women’s indoor sprint hurdles, after Devynne Charlton from the Bahamas broke her own world record world to win gold in 7.65 seconds.

After twice running a lifetime best of 7.90 seconds when progressing through the heats and semi-finals, Lavin was just outside that mark in fifth, clocking 7.91, and still that promise there is always more to come is exactly what’s driving her on towards the European Championships in Rome in June, then Paris Olympics in July.

With Lavin there is always hope and positivity and never a dour moment, and there’s also been some sense of destiny about her chosen event, given the many life hurdles she’s also overcome along the way, including the tragic loss of her then boyfriend, the Waterford rally driver Craig Breen, who sustained fatal injuries during a practice run in Croatia last April.

This week, Lavin was enjoying some brief time away from training, and took the chance to visit her old primary school near Lisnagry in Limerick, as part of the Dare to Believe programme organised by the Olympic Federation of Ireland.

“I know I made the World final two years ago, but I was shocked to do it and I think I ran 8.07 in that final,” she said. “Now it’s totally different, I’ve run 7.90, 7.90, .91 twice, .92, .93.

“Generally when you have that time consistency you get a drop. I didn’t quite get to nail that, and I think I know why. So I guess it’s a really good learning thing to go into the outdoor season. But I think it’s going to take 12.49 to make that Olympic final which is massive.”

Last summer, Lavin became Ireland’s undisputed fastest woman over the 100m flat and the 100m hurdles, improving that flat mark to 11.27, having taken down Derval O’Rourke’s 13-year-old Irish record in the 100m hurdles at the World Championships in Budapest, running 12.62.

Lavin turns 30 in May, and there’s another reason why she believes her chance will come around again.

“From 2014 to 2021, I didn’t make a senior championship; I made one in 2014 at 19 and that was it. So, I don’t take any of it for granted. Of course, you are left with wanting more, and that’s what makes you a good athlete. Patience, though, is not something that sprinters have in abundance.”

Only in Lavin’s case there is that abundance of belief her time will again.