It was a sunny day at Wimbledon when the champagne corks popped just a little too enthusiastically, right as the players were about to serve. “Can people please refrain from popping champagne bottles?” the referee had to ask.  Sarah Lavin laughs, recalling the surreal moment. “Imagine that in Morton Stadium!”

Lavin was in London with friend and fellow athlete Dina Asher-Smith. “Dina’s a very good friend. We were there with PR, enjoying the sun, lunch, afternoon tea… all of those nice things,” she says. “It was one of those rare days you can take off in June or July—usually that time of year is a no-go in an Olympic cycle.”

But 2025 is different.

With the World Championships five weeks later than usual and the Olympic Games a year in the rear view mirror, Lavin is recalibrating everything. She’s never been one to shy away from racing—“I love to race,” she grins—but this summer has been about something deeper: changing how she races.

“I’m the one always wanting  to race, she told us yesterday at an event marking Spar and EuroSpar coming on board as the retail partner of the Olympic Federation of Ireland and Paralympics Ireland.”

That hunger to compete has had to be reined in.

Her coach, Noelle Morrissey, is keeping her focused on technical adjustments. “It’s frustrating, because you’re watching people race and you just want to be out there too,” Lavin admits. “But I know if I want to go to the next level, I can’t just race for the sake of racing.”

She’s currently chasing a world final qualification time likely to be 12.5 seconds and eyeing her own national record, no small feat. “I’m 0.1 off my PB 12 weeks out, so that’s good,” she says. “But I need to be better.”

She has been working with top biomechanics expert Paul Brice, who has coached the likes of Jessica Ennis and Colin Jackson, to make crucial changes.

“The biggest issue was my approach to the first hurdle. I was taking off too close and skying it,” she explains. “We’ve moved my takeoff point back from 1.87m to 2m. That difference alone is worth 0.15 seconds in flight time. Multiply that across ten hurdles, and you’re talking real gains.”

But it’s not easy. “You only have about a 30-minute window in training where you’re primed to hit those technical changes. If it doesn’t click early, fatigue sets in, frustration builds, and it gets mentally tough.”

Still, Lavin insists, “You’re not going to get better by being comfortable.”

Noelle Morrissey has been coaching Lavin for over a decade, one of the rare examples of a world-class Irish athlete coached at home. “Very few athletes get to that level being coached by an Irish coach,” Lavin reflects. “But we’ve made it work.”

That longevity brings trust, but also healthy tension. “There are days she wants to kill me and I want to kill her,” Lavin laughs. “But that’s just part of a real relationship. What makes Noelle special is her openness. She listens, takes on key information, but knows what to weigh and what to discard.”

Lavin is one of Ireland’s fastest flat sprinters, with strength and speed endurance to match her global peers. But she’s learned that grit alone won’t shave milliseconds.

“When Paul first looked at my data, he said, ‘You’ll never run faster than 12.7.’ I’d already run 12.6 three times,” she says. “That was purely down to determination and fitness. But now we’re targeting the actual technical inefficiencies.”

Frustration? Sure. But also hope. “I went from 13.1 in Finland to 12.7 the following week. That was pure mental strength. I told myself, you have to buy into this, give it another month, another race, another week.”

Off the track, Lavin is acutely aware of her visibility. The number of young fans, and their excitement, has grown exponentially.

“I think athletics is a fantastic sport for girls,” she says. “It’s a lifestyle where you can be financially independent, chase excellence, and do it in a way that’s healthy and sustainable.”

She recalls growing up when the only “aspirational” female role models were pop stars or models. “Now girls want to be athletes. They see us, in UL, on TV, training live. They see it’s real.”

Lavin speaks passionately about the camaraderie within Team Ireland. “Paris was different. There was a genuine multisport bond that carried on after the Games.”

She pauses and becomes emotional then when asked about fellow athlete Ciara Mageean’s recent health announcement.

“Ciara is the queen of our team. She’s always been the safe person you go to before a race. It’s hard to find the words—shock, sadness, love. Just sending her everything.”

With Nationals approaching, Lavin is considering the hurdles and possibly the 200m—depending on the revised schedule. The 100m sprint may be off the cards due to its tight timing with the hurdles, but she’s open to doubling up if it makes sense. “People don’t realise how painful the 200 is,” she laughs. “That last 50m, the lactic hits and you’re thinking, why am I here?”

She’s not ruling anything out. “I’ll probably enter all three,” she grins. “But don’t be fooled, if I’m on the 200m start line, know that the fear of God is in me.”

Ultimately, Lavin knows her journey is about more than medals.

“If I can give more young girls the belief that they can be world-class, that’s the greatest impact I can have,” she says. “Because there’s no reason they can’t. They don’t have to come from a special background. They just need to see it’s possible.”

 

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