Setting his sights on the World Junior Athletic finals

GALWAY City Harriers 800m runner Keith Fallon insists he is an athlete transformed – ever since he claimed the €12,000 prize package as winner of the inaugural BUA Emerging Sports Talent Award last year.

In the middle of a tough training regime, Fallon is currently aiming to secure his place on the Irish team travelling to the 14th IAAF World Junior Athletics Championships in Barcelona in July.

Although the Headford Road native – going on last year’s official PB – is three seconds outside the qualifying time, he still hopes he can book his place when the national qualifiers roll around in Tullamore next month.

“I have to run a time of 1:51 to get there,” outlines Fallon. “I ran 1:54 last year but as the man says, I am a complete different animal in training now. I just want to get out and race. I have only a couple of weeks left of real hard work and then it is ‘Go Time’.”

No doubt, the 19-year-old athlete has transformed – even reinvented – himself over the past 12 months, with the €12,000 prize package he secured through the BUA Award scheme last year allowing him to train full-time in pursuit of his goal.

The Award scheme, itself, was the brainchild of Keith Gildea of Ocean Fitness and it incorporates significant inputs from Trish Strelioff of Bailey Point Physiotherapy, Maeve Gacquin Nutrition Consulting, Sarah Thornton Personal Training, Dr. Aideen Henry of the Galway Clinic and Niamh Fitzpatrick, Sports Psychologist.

“It (the sports programme) started after my Leaving Cert. in June, which was great because it gave me a chance to study and meant I wasn’t trying to do two things at once. It was perfect and I got enough points then to do [primary school] teaching,” says Fallon, who is currently taking a year out from his studies.

“My nutrition wasn’t bad but I wasn’t properly fuelled. I didn’t have enough carbohydrates, wasn’t hydrated, but now I know I am eating the proper stuff and have enough energy to get me through the day. That comes down to the advice I have got from Maeve Gacquin.

“With the strength and conditioning, I am bigger and I am stronger and hopefully that will translate, particularly in the last 200m of a race. If I have much more power, obviously, I will finish quicker and that, ultimately, is the aim. Sarah Thornton does the strength and conditioning.

“My physio is Trish [Strelioff] and she is brilliant. She is always keeping me going; I am always in and out to her with different niggles or whatever. I was going to her before the BUA award and she knows me inside out by now, which is great. So, if I was to pick one physio in Galway, it would have been her. That was brilliant and she keeps me healthy.”

In addition to opening up other opportunities to Fallon – who has the option of taking up a scholarship next year at the California University of Pennsylvania if he so wishes – the BUA Award also granted him access to Ocean Fitness in Salthill, where he does his gym work. “It is the best gym in Galway by far,” says Fallon.

“It has got everything and it is not crowded. You are never waiting for machines. You can relax or work as hard as you want. To be honest, I nearly live down there. After training, you can go there to relax. I was in Limerick for a while and the gym in UL was almost always crowded. There’s no comparison.”

In any event, Fallon underlines that aside from the serious amount of money it has saved him in pursuing his dream, he has found the professional advice invaluable. “Just knowing that you are doing the right things!” he exclaims.

“You can read all the stuff and you can probably find out what to do on the internet but being told and advised on the best way to do things by someone who knows is totally different. Besides, every athlete is different but they (experts) really get to know you.

“So, it (BUA scheme) will change the sort of athlete you are and if nothing else it will encourage you to be a bit more professional. When you have all this, it really motivates you to go out on the wet days and run through the muck.”

For more, read this week's Galway City Tribune.