‘I didn’t believe it until I crossed the finishing line’

BY KIERAN McCARTHY

FIONA Everard admits it will take some time to wrap her head around her rise to the top of the podium.

The Enniskeane athlete (25) raced into the record books with her incredible senior success at the national cross-country championships as she conquered muddy Gowran Demesne in Kilkenny on Sunday.

Bandon AC athlete Fiona Everard on her way to glory.

This was a performance that turned heads and rewrote history.

Having won the national novice title in December 2022, Fiona is the first Irish athlete to make the jump from winning novice to senior in less than 12 months.

‘A bit of a step up,’ the West Cork woman of the moment smiled.

That’s quite the understatement, so it’s not surprising that she has needed a few days for the magnitude of her achievement to hit home.

‘I didn’t believe it until I actually crossed the line,’ Fiona explained when she took centre stage on this week’s Star Sport Podcast.

A few days on, the Bandon Athletic Club star is still processing her triumph that catapulted her to headlines both locally and nationally. It’s all new to her, she says, but much like her performance on Sunday, Fiona will take this all in her stride.

Leading into the national cross-country she had spoken a lot with her coach, Matt Lockett, about her target: trying to earn her place on the Irish team for the European Cross-Country Championships in Brussels on December 10th.

‘We figured the top three would automatically be selected so that was my goal, to try and make it, whether I comfortably made it or scraped through,’ she said.

Fiona qualified for the Irish team in style. As the 9000m race unfolded, she felt comfortable to the point she was surprised how good she was feeling. In the leading pack alongside seasoned runners Mary Mulhare (Portlaoise AC), Danielle Donegan (Tullamore AC) and Fionnula Ross (Armagh AC), Fiona waited and waited, and then made her move.

‘On the second last lap, I felt really good. I felt like I was pulling back a small bit because I didn’t want to push the pace too much,’ she explained.

‘I know it’s nine kilometres so I didn’t want to go out too hard and end up paying for it after. I felt like I was biding my time on the second-last lap and then I stopped trying to hold back the pace and let myself run comfortably for the rest of that lap. I found myself then with a bit of a gap and that gave me confidence going into the last lap.’

Impressively, Fiona surged clear, pulling away from the chasing pack to the extent on the last lap, and inside the final kilometre, she heard shouts from the crowd, telling her “you have it!” and “enjoy it!”. She was in the zone, though.

‘I was finding it hard then and just wanted to finish the race,’ she said. ‘I didn’t fully believe it either, someone could easily come up behind me. With half a kilometre to go I nearly slipped in the mud, I nearly took a tumble, so I didn’t want to get too far ahead, I just wanted to get to the line.’

The Bandon AC woman powered over the finishing line in 36:32, a whopping 37 seconds ahead of Mary Mulhare in second, and Danielle Donegan a further three seconds back.

This is the biggest win of Fiona’s career – and by some distance. When she won the novice cross-country title in December 2022, that was over 4000m, whereas last weekend she shone over 9000m; that’s the longest distance she has ever run in cross-country.

This victory guaranteed her selection on the Irish cross-country team for the Europeans, and that was confirmed on Tuesday when she was named on the Irish senior women’s team alongside the experienced Fionnuala McCormack (Kilcoole AC), Eilish Flanagan (Finn Valley AC), Roisin Flanagan (Finn Valley AC), Mary Mulhare (Portlaoise AC) and Fionnula Ross (Armagh AC).

Fiona’s first European cross-country adventure will be big news at home in Enniskeane, much like her success on Sunday still is. Home is right smack bang in the middle of the village, just across from St Mary’s Central School which now has a reputation as a nursery for sporting champions. The Healy sisters, Joan and Phil, both went to the same school, as did camogie All-Star and serial All-Ireland camogie winner Orla Cronin. There’s certainly something in the water in Enniskeane.

‘Everyone back home is so supportive. We come from a small village, Enniskeane is quite small, but everyone will support you as much as a whole country would. It’s been overwhelming,’ said Fiona, who this week is back in Galway where she’s studying for a Masters in Biomedical Science at the University of Galway. It’s where she linked up with her coach, Matt Lockett, and his role in Fiona’s rise is important to note, too.

‘Matt has helped me to plan long-term goals and control my training a bit more. I have had a consistent year for the first time in ages, so to have that consistency and to be able to do the training has been a big plus. Hopefully we can keep building on that,’ she said, and her improvement this year – on the track and in cross-country – comes after a frustrating spell of injuries that stifled her progress. Suffering through those days means she appreciates days like last Sunday even more.

‘June 2021 was the first big injury; I got a stress fracture of my tibia,’ she explained.

‘It took a long time to come back from that and run on it again, but I kept relapsing into stress reactions on the same bone. That was frustrating because it went on for close to a year, and by May 2022 I was only up to only 20 miles a week. So going into last year I didn't have big goals or high expectations, I just wanted to train and stay healthy.

‘I was in a really bad cycle of getting injured, then I would get the all clear to go running again, then I would do everything really hard because I felt like I was catching up almost – and that cycle was just repeating itself.

‘To be fair, Ronan Duggan, my coach before Matt, he did a lot of work to get me back running some bit. He started to break that cycle as well. I have learned now, it comes with maturity, knowing when to pull back and when you can work hard.’

The pieces of the jigsaw have fallen into place this year. She won the 5000m at the Irish Universities Championships. She ran PBs on the track in both the 3000m and 1500m, and now she has raced to her biggest success yet.