WHEN IRISH SPRINTER Mark Smyth tore his groin last November, not even the saddle seat of a bike could give him relief from the pain.
Hard surfaces were too uncomfortable to bear. Running a lap would leave him with a limp. Even walking aggravated it. All avenues to maintaining fitness were closed off.
Last March, he hit a major milestone in his athletics career as he set a new national 200m indoor record at the Leinster championships. His 20.64 chopped .11 of a second off Paul Brizzel’s previous record of 20.75.
But that incredible breakthrough gave way to a rotten blow just eight months later. He had torn his adductor brevis about 100m into the 200m final at the National Indoor championships. It was a muscle he never knew existed, located high up the leg. And now he was making his discovery in the most painful way.
Surgery was an option to aid in his recovery but it was decided that rehab in the gym was the route back to the track.
“I was always doing my rehab work out in Morton Stadium and you can see everyone else out on the track warming up doing their training session,” he recalls.
“You’re thinking, ‘Oh God, maybe this isn’t the best place to be doing it.’ But it’s definitely difficult.”
The injury kept him on the sidelines until April, meaning his preparations for the European Championships in Rome were significantly affected. Travelling to America for a month and racing every weekend had been part of the plans. But he wasn’t fit enough to carry it out.
His last 200m race before the Europeans was in Greece where he ran a poor time of 21.50. His expectations for Rome were low.
“Oh God,” he thought to himself. “This is going to be disastrous and embarrassing.”
And then in the heats, he surprised himself with a new season’s best of 20.93. He smoked that again in the semi-finals to clock 20.86, leaving him with a fifth-place finish and 16th overall.
“I was the third-lowest SB time going into the championships so I didn’t really expect to get to a semi-final.
“But I didn’t know a semi-final was possible so all in all, I was delighted to make a semi-final and to run those times.”
It wasn’t always athletics for Smyth. In the beginning, there was Gaelic football with his club Raheny. He often played on underage teams with Dublin star Brian Howard and enjoyed one or two appearances alongside Brian Fenton. But an athletics coach from the Raheny Shamrocks club, Paddy Noonan, had a different vision for Smyth. The pair would often cross paths when Noonan was calling in to coach students at St Fintan’s High School.
“He roped me in,” Smyth remembers of those early stages that led to him switching sports.
A schools race in Santry helped nudge him further into the world of athletics. Smyth went along primarily to get out of school, and didn’t have a pair of spikes when he was summoned from the stand for his 200m race. Someone with bigger feet loaned him a pair, and he still won the race.
“I was literally eating a ham and cheese roll, and Kay Bannon who is my coach now, came up and said, ‘Get down there, your race is in five minutes.’ I didn’t have spikes so one of the lads gave me his spikes that were about four sizes too big but it worked out in the end.”
Many athletes have been in Smyth’s position: they have an aptitude for two sports and the window allowing them to juggle both is closing. And when the time to choose falls on them, the GAA sweeps them up. Smyth can understand the appeal in that selection, but athletics was the sport that gave him a greater sense of fulfilment.
“I enjoy watching Gaelic now and I’ve always said I’d love to go back to it. But I think the older I get, the less interest I have in it now. I definitely see myself going back to it but maybe that spark has worn away. I feel like athletics is far more rewarding. If I pull a hamstring, my athletics season is probably over but if that happens in a GAA team, they can win matches without you.
“So there’s good and bad. It’s always good to have those teammates to bring you on but I definitely feel that where I’m at now is more rewarding. GAA is so ingrained in us. Everyone loves playing for their community and trying to win championships. That is fun and I can’t blame players who play GAA over other sports.”
Smyth is happy to report that his groin bother is behind him. A recurrence of the injury never entered his head at the European Championships. And as his attention turns to the National Outdoor Championships in Santry this weekend, an outside shot at reaching the Paris Olympics is the focus for him.
He was in the points quota but the injury has weakened his claim there. Now, he can only get on the plane by aiming for a B standard time of 20.16 qualifying time. Smyth concedes that it will be difficult to achieve but won’t draw a red line through it.
“The B standard means that if you’re outside the quota points and 48 people go, and 10 people don’t go because they’re injured, the next 10 people get in. But for those 10 people to get in, you have to have a B standard or the OFI won’t select you. That would be getting in by the skin of your teeth.”
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