ATHLETICS/Interview: Ian O'Riordan talks to Ciara Sheehy, an athlete who is making progress at a consistent pace.
Ciara Sheehy will have set her alarm for 6.30 this morning, a little early for the average person but painfully early for a world-class sprinter. Without even thinking about a lie-in she'll have a light breakfast and walk the short distance from Birmingham's Jurys Inn down to the National Indoor Arena.
By 8 a.m. she'll have started to warm-up - several hours before sprinters would normally go near a track - and then a little over an hour later will attempt to run the fastest 200 metres of her life. Right now, though, there aren't that many women in the world who can sprint that distance much faster.
At 22 Sheehy's progression in 200 metres running has been a model of consistency. No great leaps, no great stalls, just gradual improvement. Two weeks ago at the same Birmingham track she won the British AAA title in 23.17 seconds, breaking the Irish record, and also clocking the 14th fastest time in the world this season.
So while the early schedule is not ideal Sheehy is not short on confidence. She's the highest ranked Irish athlete at the championships and has several targets, mainly to reach the semi-finals later this evening, and possibly tomorrow's final. She is also thinking sub-23 seconds.
"I do think I've come into my best form right when I need to," she says. "I'm not going to say I'm very confident. But it's not as huge a challenge as before to make the semi-finals and maybe break the record again. I'd really love to break that 23-second barrier, and I think it's well within my grasp.
"I've been working on this early morning start as well, and had a training session last Saturday at that time. But I'm not the worst in those situations, and can adapt. At least I hope I'll be alright anyway."
This season, like most of Sheehy's career, has so far gone exactly to plan. She has remained at her Dublin home and under the guidance of her long-term coach, Jim Kilty, the bar is constantly being raised, and constantly cleared.
Four years ago she was European junior bronze medallist over 200 metres, and two years later repeated the feat in the under-23 championships.
Birmingham marks her first World Indoors, but at 19 she lined up alongside Marion Jones in the 1999 Seville World Championships, and a year later was part of the Irish relay team at the Sydney Olympics. Each year she is stepping up to a higher level, and eventually hopes to make that step onto the medal podium.
"Well I'm definitely in this for the long haul. This summer I know I can run the 22.97 seconds to get to the Paris World Championships. And then I want to get to Athens in an individual event, having run the relay in Sydney.
"But Jim is really thinking about the next European Championships in 2006, where we're thinking of the final, if not a medal. Then the Olympic final in 2008, and thinking about the podium."
She puts much of her success down to Kilty, whom she has worked with for seven years now and has developed a "fantastic trust".
She has also stuck with the full-time routine she knows is essential to world-class athletics, and for that much of the credit goes to her parents.
"Well, yeah, my poor parents still feel the brunt of that situation. With my coach living here I couldn't afford to live here and still go full time, unless my parents were living here too."
In an event where improvements are measured in fractions of a second, Sheehy continues to generate the necessary enthusiasm. Sacrifice doesn't come into it. And this past winter in the weight room she discovered a new source of motivation.
"I was definitely lifting a lot more weight, with the same repetitions. Sometimes adding an extra 5kg each time. So I'm definitely getting physically stronger all the time. And that's been the key thing this year.
"But I was really motivated to do it, and want so badly to do well."
