The Irish athletics scene is still in hibernation, with many of Ireland’s 2024 stars scattered around the southern hemisphere and the United States at various training camps. The big attractions are the warmer weather and high altitude locations mainly in the South African and Australian summer where the weather is consistently warmer and more predictable at this time of year.

Even though the racing scene is fairly dormant apart from winter road racing and cross country, the athletes are putting in the ground work now that they expect to pay dividends in the coming months at the early season indoor races. This could lead to possible appearances by Irish athletes at the European Indoor Championships from March 6th-9th in Apeldoorn, Netherlands and the World Indoor Championships two weeks later in Nanjing, China before heading outdoors to the World Relay Championships, back to China again in Guangzhou on May 10th-11th.

No Olympics this summer but it’s going to be a busy year for athletes with a lot of long-haul flights for the major championships, culminating with the World Championships at the end of the season in Tokyo in September.

The medal-winning success of the Irish relay mixed and women’s squads in 2024, at the World relays and the European Championships, remain fresh in the memory as well as the heartbreaking fourth-place finish at the Paris Olympic Games by the women’s team.

There was also a fourth place by Rhasidat Adeleke in the 400m and coming so close just fuels the fire as these athletes set their sights on solidifying these performances with even greater results in 2025.

It’s not an easy decision for athletes who are qualified individually to also run the relay on tired legs knowing that the potential for greater success would require them to put all the eggs in one basket, but also rely on their team mates to deliver a complete performance at the highest stage.

This is an area where Ireland are handicapped due to a lack of depth in quality to be able to field different athletes to qualify for the final. I believe the potential is here for young aspiring athletes to view this as an open door to be a part of a successful event in Irish athletics by raising the standard and increasing the number of athletes available to the relay pool.

The relay is typically a bonus event at the end of a championship but, for some countries down through the years, it is seen as the greatest opportunity to bring home a medal on the Olympic stage and that’s what these next few years are for, to build on the success of Paris as we head down the road to LA 2028.

In the middle distance events, the European Indoor Championships are a good stepping stone for athletes on the cusp of success, for those that can run fast times but have yet to make finals. With so many championships and races this year on the Diamond League calendar and the newly formed Grand Slam track primarily taking place in the US, athletes will have to sit down and make some hard choices, and be careful not to spread their efforts too thinly, as they have to carry their form all the way to the World Championships in September.

As much as we had success throughout 2024, there is still a lot of room for growth, particularly on the men’s side where the highest ranked in their event was Mark English who came in at 21st in the 800m. In doing so he solidified his qualification for all the major championships in 2025.

When an athlete has their qualification in place it makes their life a lot easier as they can pick and choose a schedule to get them to the championships ready to race and avoid the need to desperately chase times whenever the opportunity arises.

In 2024 there were five Irish female athletes ranked in the top 20 or better for their events – a good foundation of success to build on in the year ahead – and there was a noticeable level of respect shown towards Irish women who didn’t just hope to find themselves competing in finals and semi-finals, but had their sights set higher.

The European youth medal-winning class of 2018 is leading the way, with Rhasidat Adeleke ranked fourth in the 400m, and so close to an Olympic medal. You know when an athlete is disappointed with a fourth place finish that they truly believe they could have achieved more. You also know the hard work and effort required throughout these winter months to get back up to that level again in four years’ time.

It will be interesting to see if Rhasidat takes the opportunity to chase a gold medal at the European and World indoors or if she will wait for the outdoors to re-start.

Indoors is one stage that Sarah Healy, ranked 17th over 1,500m, can find some confidence in her championship racing. Sarah has shown her ability to keep pace with the best athletes in the world, improving her time to 3:57.46. She trains alongside Olympic bronze medalist Georgia Bell so she will know what it takes to succeed at the highest level. The European Indoors are the perfect stage for Sarah to challenge for her first senior medal.

Sarah Lavin is another that knows she belongs in the finals; ranked 15th in one of the deepest events, she will certainly be eyeing a hurdles final at the European and World Indoors, where a year ago she placed fifth.

Israel Olatunde has been in Florida the past number of months under the watchful eye of Noah Lyles’ coach Lance Brauman, training alongside the Olympic 100m champion, and it will be intriguing to see the impact this has on the Irish 60m and 100m record holder.

For sure, 2025 won’t have the same intensity that you see in an Olympic year and this is where opportunities can arise for athletes waiting in the wings, ready to take their chance when it arises. Let us hope we see some of that success land in the lanes of Irish athletes throughout this year.