Lawler runs PB but rues missing Olympics

“It was not obviously a great time but I stayed at it and had a good run on Sunday,” said Carlow athlete, Marcus Lawler who recorded a 100metre personal best at the National League Finals in Tullamore on Sunday. He also won the 200-metre race and helped his Clonliffe Harriers club to the Premier League title. His time of 10.28 seconds in the shorter race is the fourth best Irish time ever.

It was the perfect reply for Lawler after months of injury which goes right back to the start of the year when he was gearing up his preparations for selection on the Olympic team.

Then his world fell in on top of him. His goals changed when injury became a constant companion.

“Reverse back to January,” explained Marcus.

“I was trying to qualify for Paris. I picked up an Achilles issue in January so I missed the whole indoors. Paris was more or less gone at that stage. I then pulled my groin. I got back for national championships. I pulled my groin again. It was just a case of trying to get back as quickly as I could which led me to this weekend.” He quickly came to terms with his situation.

“It was really difficult. I had qualified for the relay team for the European Championships and I missed out. That was very disappointing.

“Since Tokyo, the goal was Paris. You try to better what you do in Tokyo and you don’t even end up on the plane. That was hard to take.

“I am in the shape of my life now and the fastest I have ever been. I am not going. I am not there. It is kind of a funny one. It is what it is. I was obviously injured and could do little about it.”

He took a stoic approach to his situation.

“I stayed patient. When I was injured I never stopped. I tried to stay fit, stay healthy and tried to stay on top of it. I did all I could to stay in shape.” He readily admits it was the worst two years of his athletic life. Then the injuries began to disappear. Paris was gone but Tullamore came at the right time for him.

On what was the warmest day of the year, Lawler is lifted by what he achieved on Sunday.

“The two runs were very good. I haven’t run a personal best since 2018 and that was a huge time for me. It was fourth on the Irish all-time record list. The Irish record is 10.17 seconds and I was 10.28.

“It was a nice day for it. A warm day and I am fastest as I ever was before which is a nice thing to say.

“The Irish calendar has stopped but I will try and find something in Europe in August and try and squeeze a little bit more out of myself.” The Carlow native hopes that he will be accepted to run at events across Europe where he could come up against some of the athletes who did run in the Olympics. Yet he knows he is not box-office at the moment.

“If we target some of the same places, it is possible I could come up against some of them again. Because I have had such a bad two years it will be a little bit more difficult. I was in Tokyo, I can point that out. I will have that dilemma to fight my corner but that is where we are at.” Yet now Marcus can see light in what had been a very dark tunnel.

“Everything had turned upside down but to come out with a PB after all that is good,” he says.