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| Human Interest | |
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Further Personal Information | |
| Residence | Cork, IRL |
Sport Specific Information | |
| Club / Team | Leevale Athletic Club: Cork, IRL |
| When and where did you begin this sport? | He took up the sport at the Brymore School of Rural Technology in England. "I didn't know what athletics was until I went to Brymore." He began running competitively at age 14, and took up race walking at age 15. |
General Interest | |
| Injuries | Injury forced him to retire from the 50km race walk at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, People's Republic of China. (bbc.co.uk, 29 Aug 2015) He missed six weeks of training with a groin injury in 2010. (athleticsweekly.com, 24 Oct 2013) |
Sport Specific Information | |
| Why this sport? | He competed in several athletics disciplines until age 18, when he chose to concentrate on race walking. "Eventually, I enjoyed the challenge of an event that was extremely technical, along with training for an endurance event. I also made a lot of great friends in the sport and the rivalry was great, which drove me to train harder and to be better." |
General Interest | |
| Hero / Idol | Ethiopian long-distance runner Kenenisa Bekele, Swedish high jumper Stefan Holm. (trackfield97.com, 16 May 2012) |
International Debut | |
| Year | 2008 |
| Competing for | Great Britain |
Further Personal Information | |
| Occupation | Athlete |
| Languages | English |
General Interest | |
| Other information | NATIONALITY SWITCH In 2014 he switched allegiance from Great Britain to Ireland. He was eligible to represent Ireland through his father, but only obtained Irish citizenship in late 2013. He said the prospect of joining Irish race walkers Rob Heffernan and Brendan Boyce had influenced his decision. "The chance to train with the best walkers in the world is a fantastic opportunity." He also said he made the switch because he felt there was a lack of focus on race walking in British athletics. "Great Britain had a team of 60 at the worlds last year [2013], but I was the only one with an 'A' standard not picked initially. I had to appeal it to get selected. My world ranking before [the 2013 World Championships in] Moscow was 91st, so they didn't pick me because they didn't see me as having 'top eight' potential for the next four years. I was actually the first [male] British walker at a worlds since 1995." (independent.ie, 23 Dec 2013; belfasttelegraph.co.uk, 23 Dec 2013) |