Second fastest European youth 1500m Sarah Healy.

Working class heroes

http://www.the42.ie/sarah-healy-ireland-17-1500m-european-4075317-Jun2018/

Anyone else come across this. 4:09 at 17yrs.

Testosterscone

Working class heroes wrote: »

http://www.the42.ie/sarah-healy-ireland-17-1500m-european-4075317-Jun2018/

Anyone else come across this. 4:09 at 17yrs.

Has been steadily improving all summer. Phenomenal performance to follow up her taking Mageean's record previously. Optimistically as well she is still involved in various sports and seems to have a well rounded progression.

MY BAD

Not sure where to post this, interesting all the same. Our club coach gets a mention too
https://amp.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/athletics/the-changing-face-of-irish-athletics-37020785.html
The future is looking good for Irish athletes

Pherekydes

Hot on the heels of this, she ran 2:02.76 tonight in Belfast for an Irish junior record.

Claire Mooney ran 2:02.61 to win the race, and Ciara Mageean was only 4th in 2:03.19

pconn062

Pherekydes wrote: »

Hot on the heels of this, she ran 2:02.76 tonight in Belfast for an Irish junior record.

Claire Mooney ran 2:02.61 to win the race, and Ciara Mageean was only 4th in 2:03.19

Another absolutely incredible run by Healy. You have to feel a little for Mageean too, it just doesn't seem to be clicking for her. Not only are you being beaten by a 17 year old, but in the process she is smashing your legacy. I hope she can come right for the Euro's later this season.

pc11

Sarah Healy is now the top Under 18 in the world at 1500m, only one Kenyan girl is even close to her. Ans she's world number 5 at 800m. She's miles ahead of even Sonia at that age.

I'm always one to be cautious with over-optimism about young athletes but this is a truly special talent. The way she's running and improving she might even push for the medals at the European seniors.

Chivito550

pconn062 wrote: »

Another absolutely incredible run by Healy. You have to feel a little for Mageean too, it just doesn't seem to be clicking for her. Not only are you being beaten by a 17 year old, but in the process she is smashing your legacy. I hope she can come right for the Euro's later this season.

There's a lesson in what you've said there.

That lesson is Ciara Mageean.

Most teenage prodigies do not fulfill their potential come senior level.

People need to calm down and not have so much expectations surrounding Healy. Some of the stuff I've read of late (particularly on Twitter) is ridiculous.

Of course, in most countries, underage talent flows under the radar and develops naturally. Here, because we are so starved of senior success, we latch onto any kind of success, and build it up no end, creating ridiculous expectations for their future.

Legacies are built at senior level, not junior level.

Chivito550

pc11 wrote: »

Sarah Healy is now the top Under 18 in the world at 1500m, only one Kenyan girl is even close to her. Ans she's world number 5 at 800m. She's miles ahead of even Sonia at that age.

I'm always one to be cautious with over-optimism about young athletes but this is a truly special talent. The way she's running and improving she might even push for the medals at the European seniors.

Get away out of this! She's ranked 27th in Europe (and 46th over 800m), She will be doing no such thing. Laura Muir, Sifan Hasan, Bahta, Weightman, McColgan will all eat her for breakfast (as indeed they should, as they are top level seniors).

This is the type of ridiculous destructive hype I'm alluding to in my above post. We've been here before with special talents. Ciara Mageean was one. She hasn't fulfilled that talent. There's a good chance it could happen again, as the transition from junior to senior is tough (just look what has happened to teen sensation Mary Cain), so keep the expectations in check.

Testosterscone

Chivito550 wrote: »

There's a lesson in what you've said there.

That lesson is Ciara Mageean.

Most teenage prodigies do not fulfill their potential come senior level.

People need to calm down and not have so much expectations surrounding Healy. Some of the stuff I've read of late (particularly on Twitter) is ridiculous.

Of course, in most countries, underage talent flows under the radar and develops naturally. Here, because we are so starved of senior success, we latch onto any kind of success, and build it up no end, creating ridiculous expectations for their future.

Legacies are built at senior level, not junior level.

Develops is the key word there.

Is it the expectation or the lack of infrastructure that is the issue though? Many youth's come through with grass root coaches they grew up with, the coaches rarely get any support or guidance in taking them through to Senior Level. It's a huge missing link in the cog in this country.

In a sport so starved of media attention its a double edged sword. Fear of hyping up an athlete and the athlete can become disillusioned with the worth of there hard work (no money, no recognition etc) but hype up too much and it creates pressure. Athletes and coaches should be developed to handle performing under pressure.

pconn062

Chivito550 wrote: »

There's a lesson in what you've said there.

That lesson is Ciara Mageean.

Most teenage prodigies do not fulfill their potential come senior level.

People need to calm down and not have so much expectations surrounding Healy. Some of the stuff I've read of late (particularly on Twitter) is ridiculous.

Of course, in most countries, underage talent flows under the radar and develops naturally. Here, because we are so starved of senior success, we latch onto any kind of success, and build it up no end, creating ridiculous expectations for their future.

Legacies are built at senior level, not junior level.

Certainly have no intentions building any "ridiculous expectations". She is a good athlete and I'm happy to watch her run well, no matter what happens in the future. If we can't celebrate a young athlete doing great things, then the sport in fucked. Most of the joy I get from athletics these days comes from watching our younger athletes, the schools champs is still one of my favourite days of athletics.

I can see the point with Mageann though, I hope she can get her season going and run well. What more can we ask.

Chivito550

Testosterscone wrote: »

Develops is the key word there.

Is it the expectation or the lack of infrastructure that is the issue though? Many youth's come through with grass root coaches they grew up with, the coaches rarely get any support or guidance in taking them through to Senior Level. It's a huge missing link in the cog in this country.

In a sport so starved of media attention its a double edged sword. Fear of hyping up an athlete and the athlete can become disillusioned with the worth of there hard work (no money, no recognition etc) but hype up too much and it creates pressure. Athletes and coaches should be developed to handle performing under pressure.

There's no doubt though that if we had success at senior level, our recent junior successes would be under the radar more. Yes coverage is good, but hype is not. Only the other day Cliodna Foley was tweeting that she could well become Ireland's first ever sub 2 800m woman. Utterly ridiculous stuff to be posting. That's my point. Just look at the post above about Healy possibly contending for medals are European Seniors this year. People need to get a hold of themselves.

Sadly, it is our poor run of results at senior level which is facilitating this. People need something good to talk about, and our senior athletes are not producing much. This is likely to be our first Europeans since 1990 (excluding 2012 which was a farce of a championships where the likes of Derval didn't go) where we will not win a medal. Mageean is out of form, English doesn't seem to be racing, no sign of Gregan, Healy is running great but she's just not at that level yet, but could make a final. Barr is our only hope and it is tough with Warholm and Copello in superb form.

Lack of medals gives the wider media little to talk about at senior level. But even ignoring medals, we have very few on the men's side who are even qualified to go to Berlin. The number overall who have a chance of making a final is extremely low. It's as poor a European team as we will have had in many years.

And so we need to latch onto our juniors.

Chivito550

pconn062 wrote: »

Certainly have no intentions building any "ridiculous expectations". She is a good athlete and I'm happy to watch her run well, no matter what happens in the future. If we can't celebrate a young athlete doing great things, then the sport in fucked. Most of the joy I get from athletics these days comes from watching our younger athletes, the schools champs is still one of my favourite days of athletics.

I can see the point with Mageann though, I hope she can get her season going and run well. What more can we ask.

European medal though? Really? You can surely see my point that this is completely unrealistic.

We are all on the one side. We all want to see our young athletes make it at senior level.

pconn062

Chivito550 wrote: »

European medal though? Really? You can surely see my point that this is completely unrealistic.

We are all on the one side. We all want to see our young athletes make it at senior level.

It is, but it's only one person typing something on the internet. Don't think it means you can say everyone is getting carried away and raising expectations when we discuss a good young athlete.

Chivito550

pconn062 wrote: »

It is, but it's only one person typing something on the internet. Don't think it means you can say everyone is getting carried away and raising expectations when we discuss a good young athlete.

Apologies I'm getting mixed up between posters. I wasn't saying you were creating ridiculous expectations (that was another poster). My reply to your post was a general point, relating to the general hype over the past 2 weeks online, not specific to yourself.

pc11

Chivito550 wrote: »

Get away out of this! She's ranked 27th in Europe (and 46th over 800m), She will be doing no such thing. Laura Muir, Sifan Hasan, Bahta, Weightman, McColgan will all eat her for breakfast (as indeed they should, as they are top level seniors).

This is the type of ridiculous destructive hype I'm alluding to in my above post. We've been here before with special talents. Ciara Mageean was one. She hasn't fulfilled that talent. There's a good chance it could happen again, as the transition from junior to senior is tough (just look what has happened to teen sensation Mary Cain), so keep the expectations in check.

Ok, calm down and breathe. I totally agree that we get way too excited about fast times by kids, in fact I even said that in my post if you read it again.

What I said and meant was that with her rate of progress she will likely be ranked a lot higher than 27th by Berlin. We all know that the future may not pan out for her, I'm talking about where she is already which is FAR ahead of Mageean or Sonia at that age. She's not a promising junior any more, she's actually borderline top-class already.

Now read what I wrote again. I said "might push for the medals". I said 'might' and pushing for a medal means getting in the top 10 and you never know after that. No more, no less. You're way over-interpreting what I said.

If she makes any more progress she will be running 4.06 or so and that can easily get you in the top 10. Sorry if that simple fact offends you so mightily.

And McColgan in the 1500? Are you sure you're serious?

pc11

Chivito550 wrote: »

There's no doubt though that if we had success at senior level, our recent junior successes would be under the radar more. Yes coverage is good, but hype is not. Only the other day Cliodna Foley was tweeting that she could well become Ireland's first ever sub 2 800m woman. Utterly ridiculous stuff to be posting. That's my point. Just look at the post above about Healy possibly contending for medals are European Seniors this year. People need to get a hold of themselves.

Now you're the one being ridiculous, She's run 2.02 and making rapid progress. Running 1.59 at some stage is not such an astounding stretch. It's a simple observation that it is a possibility. Unless she said she was going to do it next week, I can't see why you're so irate.

Calm down. Or don't read posts that upset you so much maybe?

I repeat, I totally agree we should not overhype young athletes but I don't believe this is that.

Chivito550

pc11 wrote: »

Ok, calm down and breathe. I totally agree that we get way too excited about fast times by kids, in fact I even said that in my post if you read it again.

What I said and meant was that with her rate of progress she will likely be ranked a lot higher than 27th by Berlin. We all know that the future may not pan out for her, I'm talking about where she is already which is FAR ahead of Mageean or Sonia at that age. She's not a promising junior any more, she's actually borderline top-class already.

Now read what I wrote again. I said "might push for the medals". I said 'might' and pushing for a medal means getting in the top 10 and you never know after that. No more, no less. You're way over-interpreting what I said.

If she makes any more progress she will be running 4.06 or so and that can easily get you in the top 10. Sorry if that simple fact offends you so mightily.

And McColgan in the 1500? Are you sure you're serious?

Big difference between running 4:06 in a paced race (which is a big step from 4:09) and competing with the best in Europe in championship races.

Do we even know if she’s planning to go to Berlin anyway? I can’t imagine that is her priority for this season. European U18 would surely be the target and rightly so. Hopefully she goes to Berlin but it would surely be for nothing more than experience.

I’m sorry but suggesting she might push for medals is crazy talk.

McColgan has run 4:01.60 for 1500m. That’s top class at European level in my book anyway! Whether she chooses that over 5000m is another story.

Faugheen

Chivito550 wrote: »

Big difference between running 4:06 in a paced race (which is a big step from 4:09) and competing with the best in Europe in championship races.

Do we even know if she’s planning to go to Berlin anyway? I can’t imagine that is her priority for this season. European U18 would surely be the target and rightly so. Hopefully she goes to Berlin but it would surely be for nothing more than experience.

I hope she does go for the very reason you've said. She's making her mark at her own age grade so I don't see what harm it would do if she goes to Berlin and gets experience with the best of the best in Europe. Let her go out and enjoy herself. Not many athletes get the chance to at that distance in her age grade.

Is Tokyo on her radar? If it is, I think it would be silly not to send her to Berlin.

Chivito550

Faugheen wrote: »

I hope she does go for the very reason you've said. She's making her mark at her own age grade so I don't see what harm it would do if she goes to Berlin and gets experience with the best of the best in Europe. Let her go out and enjoy herself. Not many athletes get the chance to at that distance in her age grade.

Is Tokyo on her radar? If it is, I think it would be silly not to send her to Berlin.

She’s not going to Berlin. She’s doing Morton and then that’s it. People forget she’s still in school and has the type of summer plans many school goers might have.

Time enough for senior competition. What a fantastic week for a really exciting talent.

That’s as relaxed as I’ve ever been watching an Irish athlete going for a medal. Never in doubt.

Faugheen

I forgot about Morton. Should be enough senior talent there to test herself against.

The moment that really opened up my eyes was the rest of the girls on the ground when they crossed the line after giving it their all, and she's walking around as if she was out for a jog. Seriously impressive fitness levels for someone of that age.

benjamin d

She's some prospect for the future, and so comfortable looking too. I agree with the post above, hopefully she spends her summer arsing about with her friends and being a teenager as much as she trains and competes. She's 17!

She has plenty of glory days ahead I'm sure

Safiri

Katelynn Touhy is better...

Oops...sorry; thought I was reading a letsrun thread:pac:

Whatever about her future, Sarah Healy is a hell of an athlete already at 17 and would be competitive already at all but the very highest profile meets in the World at senior level right now in the 8 and 1500 and that's not expectation,that's a reality of where she is already at. She has a fantastic stride, bags of speed and strength as well as being undertrained which makes it look like she has a lot of room for improvement which is promising. I think once you start to get to her age and have possible star potential, it's not quite a bad thing to be testing the waters of expectation and pressure; learning to cope with that is just as vital a part of becoming a top athlete as the training(the hype here is still miniscule compared to say a Sydney McLaughlin at the same age). From what I've heard and read; she seems to have a good head on her shoulders and is wise enough to not pay much heed to others unrealistic expectationsof what she can achieve

The sport in this country probably needs a lot more of this good coverage on athletes who perform well. Shows the rewards that are out there to other junior athletes and promotes the sport in a good way.

Chivito550

Good piece here which is worth reading:

https://www.fastrunning.com/opinion/comment/talent-can-be-a-heavy-weight-on-a-young-athletes-shoulders/17569/amp?__twitter_impression=true

YFlyer

She would have given Great Britain's Keely Hodgkinson a race in the 800m. if not beaten her.

Faugheen

Her PB is faster than Hodgkinson's, so I'd say she would have beaten her if she went for 800 instead of 3000