A current day in the life of Sarah Leahy is easily recountable, and even if it’s all a bit repetitive she wouldn’t have it any other way. A small price to pay for dreaming big about her sprinting potential.
At this weekend’s Irish Indoor Championships at the Sport Ireland Arena in Abbotstown, Leahy will look to win back the 60 metres title she first claimed in 2023. That wasn’t long after she returned to the sport after focusing on women’s Gaelic football in previous years with her club Killarney Legion, the University of Limerick, and also the Kerry county team.
Now based in Dublin training with the sprint group under coach Daniel Kilgallon, Leahy also works full-time as an engineer with Winthrop Technologies, in Ballymount; Kilgallon’s sprint group, which formerly included the likes of Rhasidat Adeleke and Israel Olatunde, train at nearby Tallaght AC.
“I’m a BIM technician (building information modelling),” says Leahy, “and currently working on a project that’s based in Sweden, so I’m obviously not on site. I’m going to try to stay in the head office as long as possible because I don’t want to leave my training group.
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“So I get up at 7am, start work about 8am to 8.30am, depends on the day, and I go straight to training for 7pm. So I might leave work at 5.30pm, get to the track, change, get ready, and then when I get home it could be 9.30pm, shower, eat, bed, repeat.
“So interests outside of athletics are quite small because it’s work, train, sleep – there’s not a lot of time for anything else. But that’s what we chose to do, and we love it, so I’m happy.”
So Leahy knows all about the commitment to both sports, and while she would have been entitled to some intercounty expenses had she stayed within the GAA, she doesn’t yet qualify for any support in athletics. Not that she’s complaining – ask not what your country can do for you, etc.
“My parents are actually doing a little bit at the moment, with my club at home to get me a little bit of extra funding, because obviously I work full time. I was fortunate to go to a few competitions this indoor season abroad, but I have to take the week unpaid off work because obviously I only get 21 days of holidays during the year, so I have to save that.
“I do have a little bit of support from a company, Danu Sport, they help me a little bit as well, for travelling and stuff, but outside of that, no, it’s all self-funded.”
At age 25 Leahy is still off her sprinting prime, returning to athletics in 2021 after first joining the local club, then Spa Muckross AC, at age 10. The lockdown during Covid-19 helped force the decision to move away from Gaelic football, and she hasn’t looked back
“I remember seeing the 4x100m women’s senior relay at the world Relays in Poland, I just got this kind of realisation, like, I really want to do that, that looks so much fun . . . So, yeah, in 2021 I went back competing in athletics, didn’t expect how quickly, I suppose I would have improved, and it was the best decision I made.”
In 2022 she was part of the 4x100m relay at the world Championships in Oregon, and in 2023 at the European Team Championships in Chorzów, and is currently part of the national 4x100m relay squad looking to qualify for the world Championships in Tokyo later this year.
Abbotstown this weekend is another small step on that journey, and having finished second last year Leahy is clearly gunning for the title once again. She’s learned a lot since last year, briefly meeting Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles from the US when training and racing in Florida last summer.
“I think two years ago I went in really confident, came out with a national title, then last year I think maybe my mindset wavered a little bit, and then I paid the price, I didn’t have my best race in the final.
“That happens, and so I’m learning a lot. You don’t really know until you’re on the line but there’s a lot of focus going into the weekend, the preparation, and I’m confident I’m gaining experience every time, because I’m still quite new to the sport, so I’m very excited.”
