It’s getting dark and chilly when Daniel Kilgallon starts to wrap up training on Thursday evening. And as his small band of elite athletes begin to drift off in different directions, it’s already clear why Tallaght Athletic Club has become such a hotbed for Irish sprinting.
There is no secret to Kilgallon’s success, just a simplicity, consistency and positivity to his approach to training. And despite several calls to go abroad, for him the Greenhills Road is still where it’s at.
“Someone once asked me how do you become a good coach, and the answer is you find good athletes,” he explains. “I’ve always been aware of that. But it’s also about creating the right environment, everyone driving each other on. And maybe this feels a bit more like a family, too, because everyone is so supportive of each other.”
Kilgallon is uncomfortable being in the spotlight, preferring to go about his business without any attention. But when Seán Aigboboh broke the Irish 200m record last week, running 20.27 to eclipse the mark which had which had stood to Paul Hession for the previous 19 years, it meant he’d played a role in the development of almost all the Irish sprint record holders over the last decade. Including Rhasidat Adeleke, who holds every Irish women’s sprint record from 60m to 400m, Israel Olatunde, Ireland’s fastest man, plus the Irish men’s 4x100m relay and dozens more schools and underage national sprint champions.
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It’s a unique achievement by any coaching standard. Most of his athletes have also come through Tallaght AC, where Kilgallon has been serving as sprints coach since 2010, not long after he moved to Dublin from his native Ballina. These days the 46-year-old describes himself as a “sole trader” in the coaching business, with subsidiary contracts with Athletics Ireland and Paralympics Ireland among others. But when it comes to Tallaght AC, “this is the thing that still excites me the most”.
Adeleke, Olatunde and more recently Aigboboh have since moved on to bigger ponds in the US and his focus this evening is on his elite women’s sprint group. This includes Sarah Leahy and Millie O’Reilly, both just back from last weekend’s World Athletics Relays in Botswana, and Orla Comerford, last year’s World Para Athletics gold medal winner in the 100m and 200m.
They come from different clubs and backgrounds, including Aoife Lynch from Donore Harriers, on the city’s northside, and Carlota Málaga Morán, a three-time national sprint champion from Andorra. Uche Disu is from Tallaght AC and at 19 the youngest in the group, and Kilgallon is quietly predicting big things from her too.
“When any athlete approaches me, the first thing you look for is ways you can help,” he says, whistle and stopwatch in hand. “I wouldn’t be one for taking on anyone, just for the sake of it. Most of these athletes are also working, can’t train every day, so you have to prioritise quality over quantity.
“Like any group we also have rules and guidelines and expectations, and we also have ambition. And if you don’t have ambition, you’re in the wrong place. We like to push barriers, go beyond where athletes have gone before.”
[ A bumper year for Irish athletics: 25 medals and the athletes who won themOpens in new window ]
Comerford first approached Kilgallon after she’d won the 100m bronze at the 2024 Paralympics in Paris – not at all unsatisfied with her coaching up to that point but realising she wanted something more.
“It was just his reputation, and of his athletes, that drew me to the group,” Comerford says. “With Daniel it’s always been about bringing athletes through. I’ve learned a lot and I’m still learning. We all trust in the programme, trust in Daniel, and trust in each other.”
O’Reilly is the longest-serving member of the group, coming from nearby Dundrum South Dublin AC in 2019 and boasting a string of national sprint podium places to her name.
“There’s an understanding with Daniel,” she says. “He knows what to say when you’re doing well, and not so well. That positive reputation in itself helps breed success. If you’ve a coach with a big ego, the focus isn’t always on the training. But sometimes with Daniel, he could afford to give himself more of a pat on the back. He is very humble.”
Before Aigboboh took up a scholarship at the University of Houston in Texas last September, Kilgallon had already guided him to two successive podium places in the national senior 100m. Only 20, Aigboboh is now being coached at Houston by Carl Lewis, the nine-time Olympic gold medal winner.
Although a former sprinter of some pedigree himself, Kilgallon drifted into coaching in his early 20s, devouring training manuals wherever possible, and is well tuned into the former exploits of Lewis and co.
“Before Seán left for Houston, we had a video call, with himself, Carl Lewis, and I,” says Kilgallon. “And at the start Carl says to me, ‘I don’t know if you know who I am.’ Obviously I’m in awe of Carl Lewis, but we were honest with each other. And he said to me: ‘Look, if Seán is not performing in year one, we’ll have to talk about it’. And Seán has responded very well to that pressure, which is great to see.
[ Sean Aigboboh breaks Irish 200m record that has stood for 19 yearsOpens in new window ]
Kilgallon might just have frankly asked Lewis if he knew who he was. Although that’s never been his style. He’s still slow to take any great credit for Adeleke’s progress, describing her as a once-in-a-generation talent, even though she was injured at a critical juncture in her career when she first teamed up with Kilgallon in September 2018. The following summer she won a sprint double at the European Youth Olympics, before, in 2021, winning another sprint double at the European U20 Championships.
After that, Adeleke headed for the University of Texas. Two years ago Olatunde also left the Tallaght group to join up with the Pure Athletics club in Florida alongside Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles. Sorry as Kilgallon is to see them go, he’s never stood in their way.
“With Israel he needed faster guys to train with, needed to learn more, and he’s more independent now. His goal is to break 10 seconds – I still think he’s capable of that. And if someone gets hurt here tonight, it could be two nights before they get in to see a physio. In the US, they have a physio with them all the time. We don’t have those luxuries here.
“They’re also starting to know a lot more about the Irish system, after Rhasidat and Israel, so more US colleges are looking here now for their pick. Personally, I’ve no issue with that, I’m delighted for the athletes if they get the chance to go away like that, as long as it’s a system where they can flourish.
“We don’t really have an alternative here, right now, that can compete with that. Maybe we never will. But there is some movement on that, to maybe create a sort of sprint academy for Irish athletics, where they could be supported more, train full-time, and get together on a national level. Which is something I would like to see.”
Still, Kilgallon makes the absolute best with what he’s got. He commutes to Tallaght from his home in Enfield, Co Meath, three times a week, his three children also involved in athletics – although he’s happy to leave them to to other coaches.
“And my wife, Cliodhna, has been very supportive,” he says. “But again it’s all about keeping it simple, with a bit of science involved, and knowing what works.”
In parts, the Tallaght track is more worn-out black than red, probably five or six years past its use-by date. There are plans and finances to get it resurfaced, although Kilgallon sees no great hurry.
“I am a bit hesitant to get the track torn up, because they might find some special dust, realise it’s nothing to do with me. But maybe there is something here, with the environment we have in the group. Before Israel left, one of the things he said was that he was thankful the environment here allowed him to dream big. Maybe there is something in that too.”
