Sarah Lavin warms up for Olympics by powering to ninth Irish senior title in 100m hurdles

With a run as crisp as it was classy, the 30-year-old put the disappointment of the recent European final firmly behind her as she smashed Derval O’Rourke’s championship record of 12.95, clocking 12.79 – an impressive time given the rain-soaked track.

“It was clean, that was massive,” said Lavin, who was devastated to finish seventh in the European final earlier this month after clattering the second barrier. “It was gutting, absolutely gutting,” she reflected. “But I’m very hard on myself every single day; I wear my heart on my sleeve and I always will.”

With a little over five weeks until she competes in Paris, Lavin said, “I think I’m where I want to be, ahead of where I was last year, and obviously you want to peak at the Olympics. I ran 12.66 last week, my second fastest ever. I obviously want to be in a global final and it will require going somewhere I haven’t gone before, but this is a good place to be today.”

Lavin won double gold at nationals last year and will return to defend her 100m title on Sunday, where she’s set to square off with Rhasidat Adeleke. Lavin has the national record at 11.27, but Adeleke clocked a wind-assisted 10.84 in April, which suggests she can run around 11.0 in wind-legal conditions.

“It’s a huge compliment that people are thinking it’s going to be a showdown; I guess it’s not Texas out there,” she laughed. “But I have huge respect: Rhasidat is one of the greatest athletes we’ve ever had, across any event. I hope we can put on a good race tomorrow for everyone.”

Thomas Barr went after the automatic standard of 48.70 in the heats of the 400m hurdles, but with strong winds, he came up well short, clocking 49.60. Barr will be keen to clock a fast time in Sunday’s final as he bids to seal Olympic qualification via his world ranking. He’s currently 39th, with just 40 places available, and he can improve his position by winning in a time quicker than 49.11 on Sunday.

“The main thing is I’ve got through to the final, there’s big [ranking] points on offer tomorrow and after that, my fate will be sealed as to whether or not I’m qualified for Paris,” he said. “It’s going to be a matter of trying to go out harder in that first half and give it one more lash.”

Phil Healy had a convincing win in the women’s 200m, her 17th national senior title across the distances, the Bandon athlete clocking 23.42. It’s unlikely to help her qualification chances for Paris but she will go to the Games regardless as part of the relay pools.

“Every national title is so special and if I rewind 12 months ago, it was a disastrous nationals, I ended my season that day – it was just chronic,” said Healy, who has dealt with an auto-immune condition in recent years.

“To come back, I won the 200m indoors and outdoors now. Obviously, I’d like a bit quicker, especially with how the heat felt earlier.”

Mark Smyth was equally dominant in the men’s 200m, though the Raheny athlete’s time of 20.70 (1.5m/s) wasn’t close to what he needed to qualify for Paris.

“I was happy with the win but maybe with a little heat and less rain it’d have been faster,” he said. “Maybe I’m delusional, but I wanted to get an Olympic B standard to hold out hope if people pulled out. It was too little, too late.”

There was drama in the men’s 110m hurdles where Adam Nolan looked on course for gold until the final barrier, which he smashed with his lead leg, crashing to the track and sliding across the line in 14.37. Carrick-on-Shannon’s Gerard O’Donnell duly swept to his seventh national title in 14.20 (2.4m/s).

“I’m trying to play catch-up in training, it was like a Leaving Cert cram the last few weeks,” said O’Donnell, a coach to several Irish internationals.

“I got out well, Adam was flying it and he’s a serious athlete so I knew I had to nail it. Then with two hurdles to go, I was like, ‘I’m just not going to close today.’ But you’ve just got to take the chance when it’s there. It’s a pity for Adam, but he’ll have another day.”

Brian Fay unleashed a scintillating final lap to take gold in the men’s 5000m in 13:43.61, the Raheny athlete drawing well clear of Efrem Gidey and Cormac Dalton.

“Coming into that last lap I wanted to absolutely burn everyone, it’s a nice confidence booster after the Europeans,” said Fay. “To come here and get a win is nice, especially a national title. If I can keep that momentum going for the next six weeks, I think I’ll be ready to go in Paris.”

Eric Favors was below his best despite winning gold in the men’s shot putt, the soaked throwing circle not helping as he launched a best of 18.85m. Favors is just inside the 32-man quota for Olympic qualification based on his world ranking and his fate will be decided this weekend.

“It’s out of my hands now, we’ll sit and wait,” he said. “If I get a chance to get into the Olympics that’d be a blessing.”

Saragh Buggy of St Abban’s won her ninth national title in the women’s triple jump with a best of 12.72m, her 21st overall. Kate O’Connor took a commanding win in the women’s javelin, the heptathlete – who remains on track to secure a place in Paris – throwing a best of 48.73m.

Kate Veale put the disappointment of missing out on Olympic qualification behind her by claiming her ninth national title in the 5000m walk, her 25th overall.

The 30-year-old fell short of qualifying for Paris in the race walk mixed relay on this same track seven days earlier alongside teammate Brendan Boyce. But she closed her season on an uplifting note, clocking 21:57.42 to take gold.

“It was probably good for me that I had this to come,” she said. “It was nice to get back on it and keep focused for another race. It was disappointing, me and Brendan weren’t at our best, but there’s loads of learning to the season. I know I can be better than I am.”

Oisín Lane was a class apart in the men’s 10,000m race walk, the Mullingar Harrier taking gold in 40:25.99. Luke McCann and Cathal Doyle breezed through their heats of the 1500m, setting up a riveting duel in Sunday’s final, with Andrew Coscoran absent due to a respiratory infection.

Mark English also coasted to victory in his 800m heat and will be the man to beat in Sunday’s final while in the women’s 800m, Sarah Healy and Louise Shanahan look set to battle for gold after facile wins in their heats.

National Senior Track and Field Championships: Live, Sunday, RTÉ 2: 12.45