THE SHOW MUST go on.
Ireland’s sprint sensation Phil Healy has enjoyed a blistering start to 2020. The Cork star set another national record — also a European-leading time — in a successful indoor season, collected valuable qualifying points and jumped to 27th — from 39th — in the world rankings. The perfect opening to an Olympic year.
But with the COVID-19 coronavirus putting Tokyo 2020 in doubt, and effectively shutting down the entire country of Ireland from today until the end of the month, Healy is facing several challenges in her training.
“Everything is going really well at the moment,” she told The42 over the phone yesterday after discussing her recent exploits. “Obviously coronavirus is going to interrupt things.
“They think the track is going to close in the next week and the gym is going to close and things like that… I have a Plan B and I have a house set up near the beach. We have everything there; we can train on the beach, a forest nearby and hills nearby so coronavirus isn’t going to be beating us.
“We have our Plan B that way, it’s just about adapting to that and making the most of what we can do now before everything actually shuts down.”
It effectively will later on today, but along with the immediate concern of finding safe and isolated training venues, Healy, her coach, Shane McCormack, and her training group had already been taking precautionary measures.
“A lot of us are training separately,” she explained. “I’m using a more quieter gym to my usual gym and things like that. It’s just taking precautions: I wear gloves every time I’m in the gym now.
“You’re not your usual norm so it is difficult that way and it is different, but everyone needs to be careful themselves and look after themselves, do their part in it all.”
But with a big summer ahead, the Bandon native won’t let the situation disrupt things too much.
“Absolutely not, because who knows… Olympics may still go ahead. We’re training as if it, and everything else is, going ahead until we get that final decision of no. Then obviously things change a little, but as of now, and until everything is announced, to me, it’s going ahead and we have to adapt that way.
Lots of uncertainty around Olympics but more immediate concerns for athletes will be safe/isolated training venues once the inevitable happens. Time to rely on our natural resources of beaches, forests, trails. @philhealy2 road to Tokyo looks like this today. #turfandtin #prep pic.twitter.com/zpnNhxbbCV
— Shane McCormack (@mcwexford) March 11, 2020
“It’s like when I broke my foot last year and I couldn’t run: Plan A goes out the window and then you have Plan B. It’s the exact same now. When everything shuts, Plan A isn’t there so we have to have Plan B.
“When it’s taken away from the definite date of things happening or if it’s delayed, obviously, when you’re lying in an Olympic qualification spot, everyone wants Olympics to happen this year and things like that… hopefully it does go ahead and things run smoothly as well.”
Running smoothly, Healy has been, after a challenging — and injury-plagued — 2019.
In late January, she laid down a huge early-season marker in Athlone with a 200m time of 23.28 in her first competitive outing of the season. That put her third on the Irish indoor all-time list, and was just 0.11 off the national record.
Two weeks later, she broke the 17-year-old record at Athlone IT Grand Prix: 23.10.
“Even the last time I met you, that was a couple of days before I started racing… I knew I was sitting on a big time at that stage but you don’t want to say,” she smiled, reflecting on our in-depth chat before her season opener.
“You run those times in training but until you actually go out and do the performance, that’s when you actually have your evidence of it being there in a race. A couple of days after that I ran 23.28 and then at AIT Grand Prix, it was 23.10.
“When that race I did in Athlone was 23.28, I knew there was so much more there because that was on my own, I had a little stumble at the start and stuff like that and the record was just 23.17. I was just shy of it.”
AIT Grand Prix came as a “big step up” in the absence of World Indoors, with Healy and her fellow athletes requesting the 200m event be ran in the winter. A sold-out crowd, an electric atmosphere. Ideal.
“It was always about getting Olympic ranking points because it was a high category race; just going out there, soaking up the atmosphere and doing the best that I could,” she continues. “Seeing the 23.10 on the clock was just absolutely super.
“Especially then when it was a sold-out crowd, there was television coverage, there were so many kids around, it even made it more special because it got that coverage. Everyone got to share it as well rather than it being at a race where there’s hardly no one there, there’s no coverage, no video of it, so it was super in that way.”
NATIONAL RECORD 🎉🎉
— Phil Healy (@philhealy2) February 12, 2020
23.10 @AthloneIT Grand Prix to break the 17 year old 200m record🤗
Unreal meet and atmosphere with superb performances all round! Onwards 🙌🏻🙌🏻 pic.twitter.com/CFvJeAdR1P
At the mention of kids at the track and sharing her celebrations with them, the brilliant pictures from afterwards must be discussed.
Surrounded by young girls and boys, there are snaps of programmes being thrown at Healy for signing and selfies being requested. Those moments must make it all the more special.
“Absolutely,” she beams. “It’s great for them.
“Growing up, I always remember who signed autographs and stuff for me. You have to give the time for the kids. We’re on about inspiring the younger generation, we have to do that for them.
“It was absolutely super. There were so many of them there and they were so excited, you have to give them the time because that’s what they’re going to remember.”
It’s a night Healy won’t forget any time soon either, as she added another long-standing record to her broken ones. The 200m indoor now joins the books with the 100m and 200m outdoor, cementing her title as Ireland’s fastest woman.
While that’s a title she’s not exactly fond of, and she sees those national records as her PBs more than anything else, the 25-year-old is delighted to break them.
“Even say the 23.10, it’s European-leading for the indoor season,” she adds. “And the 23.16 is second on the European list. It was a hard record, it’s there for 17 years for a reason. It was absolutely super to knock that one and get another one on the books.
“We moved from 39th position to 27th so that’s everything that we aimed for in the indoor season, then running 23.16 again, which would have been below the old national record, at National Champs and getting the 40 bonus points there was more icing on the cake.
“I didn’t expect to run as quick as nationals at nationals because it’s more of a lower key meet to AIT Grand Prix atmosphere-wise. There probably is a quarter of the people and different things like that. It was about focusing on my lane, my race and executing that.
“I was thrilled to run 23.16 there.”
Now, it’s a case of onwards and upwards. Both on and off the track.
Ahead of International Women’s Day on Sunday, Healy made her feelings known on the challenges facing women in sport in an article with The Irish Examiner.
She delved into the hurdles she has encountered and explained why we should strive for a more equal sporting world, sharing suggestions on promotion, coverage and providing free tickets into events to raise awareness and encourage more females into sport.
“Men get the headlines,” she noted as she called for more recognition for sportswomen and for athletics.
In our conversation, she used the example of her current world ranking of 27th.
“If that’s golf or a different sport, you’re a household name whereas in athletics you’re not a household name as such, or no one knows that it was a European-leading time for 200m for the indoor season.
“Compared to other sports, they would get the recognition for that. I’m not saying I’m looking for the recognition, but athletics, that way, gets a bit brushed under. It’s similar to some female sports.”
She also mentions how, at elite level, most women aren’t involved in professional set-ups. So that involves balancing full-time work, or study, with sport. In Healy’s case, she’s an Information Technology [IT] Masters student at Waterford Institute of Technology.
“I remember [former Ireland rugby star] Alison Miller used to be down with us an awful lot training, and she always said, ‘Be better, not bitter’ and that is one thing you have to carry,” Healy continues.
“Yes, obviously, if you look at the rugby set-up it must be very frustrating for them if they’re trying to balance everything, they’re out competing as well in the same match against the same teams but the men get everything.
“That’s just the accepted norm, and that’s what everyone has just accepted in general. Just, ‘Ah listen, she put in the hard work herself.’ They’re balancing full-time careers as well as their sport. You have to credit them more for doing the two in one, making it happen and representing their country at the highest level.”
Healy, who originally did three years of nursing in college, graduated with a health science degree and went into a higher diploma in computer technology in UCC before moving to the WIT Masters, is passionate about her studies.
And encouraging more women into her field of work.
“I would have as high of a bar in terms of education as I would in sport,” she nods, “it’s just as important for me to get my degree and to have something there lined up for me when I do have to balance them both, or when I do choose to retire from athletics.
“While I’m a big ambassador for the sporting side of things and inspiring that way, I’m also trying to be an ambassador for women in IT. There’s a company in Waterford that have supported that, I’m just going around to schools.
“Again, it comes back to perceptions and stereotypical views. We go out to the kids and they think that working with computers is being behind your computer all day long, not working with people, and it’s geeky full-of-Maths people that go into it. It’s all about changing that.
“The media culture has to change too, the media portraying what kids think.”
And on that, it’s interesting to hear her thoughts on the aforementioned International Women’s Day, which was celebrated worldwide on Sunday.
Many people take issue with the fact that there’s a big fuss made about one day of the year. Yes, the promotion is great in terms of women in sport, but that should happen on each of the other 364 — or in this year’s case, 365 — days of the year. Healy is one of those.
“Yeah, absolutely. Why is it highlighted on one day? Not just in terms of getting sporting recognition or celebrating achievements as such, it’s absolutely ridiculous that we only celebrate it for one day.
“But in terms of equality, we’re trying to promote it. Equality should be there every day and it shouldn’t have to be highlighted. It should just be a given thing and an accepted norm. The whole thing is just a bit corrupt in that way because there’s so many female leading roles out there and women excelling in so many areas.
“It is just a bit weird that we’re just celebrating it on one day and there is so much hullabaloo made about it for one day, when it should be across the board. It was on the 8th March, today is the 11th, it’s totally forgotten about.”
Well, by the way she’s going, Phil Healy is making sure she’ll never be forgotten about.
On or off the track.
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Kinetica Night Run ambassador Phil Healy was on hand this week after breaking the national indoor 200m record to assist with launching this year’s Kinetica Night Run, taking place on Sunday 26 April.
Phil Healy is flying at the moment, just a pity olympics probably won’t be going ahead as she would have surprised a few people, capable of at least making a final.No Euros either, not a great year for sports fans, but 100% right they don’t go ahead.