Ciara Neville bridges difficult six year gap between national senior titles

Irish Examiner

a day ago

It was an experience she'd lived before. But this one felt so different. For Ciara Neville, six years and a slew of difficulties had separated her two national senior titles over 100m.
The latest, last Sunday, saw her power to gold in 11.44 seconds and when the Limerick sprinter crossed the line, five hundredths of a second ahead of Lauren Roy, she initially kept a lid on her emotions.
'I knew I'd won, but I didn't want to be that person who celebrated until it came up on the scoreboard,' she says.
When it did, she broke into a euphoric smile. 'I was a bit emotional,' she adds. 'Winning nationals after my injury is something I'd been working towards.'
That injury – a partial tear in the conjoint tendon of her hamstring, which had partially ripped off the bone – occurred in the summer of 2021. For much of that year, she'd been inside the qualification quota for the Tokyo Olympics and just needed a couple more strong performances to book her place.
But at nationals, her last chance to post a qualifying mark, she was below her best while carrying the injury, clocking 11.69 to finish fourth. She had to watch the Games from afar.
Neville initially went the conservative route with her injury, getting PRP (platelet-rich plasma) injections and rehabbing for several months, but early in 2022 she wasn't much better. She went under the knife in April that year and six months later, she took her first, tentative steps back running.
Her coach, Noelle Morrissey, says Neville had to 'learn how to run again and to trust herself' in the years after. In August 2023 – over two years on from the injury – she got back racing, clocking 11.90 for 100m. Last year, she lowered that to 11.73 to finish seventh in the national final. It was good, but still a world away from where she'd been.
The journey back was made even more difficult after her funding from Athletics Ireland/Sport Ireland was cut to nothing. While Neville notes that her family have been hugely supportive and would never see her stuck, she didn't want to be 'that person' and so she got a job at Specsavers in Ennis – a role that gives her the flexibility to train at an elite level.
She knows the business of her sport. She knows she looked like a bad investment. But that didn't make it easier when the funding guillotine was dropped.
'When you need it the most, they're not there,' she says. 'Sport Ireland really helped me out at the start but I don't think anyone expected for me to get back to the top. A lot of people clocked out, they were like, 'She's not coming back from this.' So it feels nice to prove a few people wrong.'
Morrissey, who has coached Neville for 19 years, had been here before. Having also guided Sarah Lavin from grassroots to the global stage, she knew how absent the support can be at the times it's most needed.
'To be fair, when Ciara got injured, Athletics Ireland were quite supportive for the next year, year and a half. But I don't know if they ever believed after that. Then there's zero support.'
That's where the Jerry Kiernan Foundation – set up by the late coach's friend Murt Coleman to support athletes in situations just like Neville's – proved a saviour.
'I'm so lucky they came on board,' says Neville. 'It's an expensive sport, a time-consuming sport, and to have that makes it so much easier.' There were promising signs indoors this year, Neville winning silver in the national 60m final in 7.41 and that progress continued outdoors, Neville clocking 11.7 for 100m, then 11.6 and 11.5.
'The more I raced, the more I could execute the race better. I was counting down the days to nationals. I was so excited, which would never have been like me before.' For her coach, some uncertainty lingered. 'I knew before how you teed up Ciara [for a big performance],' says Morrissey.
'But I hadn't teed her up in so long. I didn't know exactly if it would work for her, and it did.' Morrissey was in floods of tears soon after Neville crossed the line, and Neville says her coach is 'like a second mom', adding: 'I don't think I'll ever be able to repay her for what she's done for me.'
Both know there's lots of ground to cover before she returns to a major championship. 'In global terms, we're not at the races yet,' says Morrissey. 'We're back near where she was, and we have to move on from here.'
But Neville is so much closer than she's ever been since the injury – a testament to her commitment. 'Ciara loves the sport, she loves sprinting. She knows she has talent and is very, very resilient. She really wanted it, and that's why she's still doing it.'
Morrissey has a tight-knit training group at Emerald AC, with Neville crediting the lads she trains with who so often 'sacrificed their own sessions' to help her through hers. Then there's her longtime physio Kathryn Fahy and strength coach Tom Comyns, who built her back up from ground zero.
'There's been so many times I looked at the clock after a race and been so disappointed with the time, knowing the hard work I put in,' says Neville.
'Yet I'm so grateful that I'm back competing as it's just what I love. I love competing. I love race day.'
She will race again in Belgium next weekend and in Stratford the following weekend. While this year's World Championships look beyond her, Neville hopes to get back into the 11.3-second range and tee up a return to the major stage in 2026: 'I'm soaking it up and going to go out and enjoy a few more races.'
Did she ever wonder if she'd enjoy a day like last Sunday again? Of course. But she never stopped trying to make it a reality. 'There was never a moment where I was like, 'Do you know what? It's just easier to pack this in.'
"I've been so lucky to have so many people supporting me through it. It definitely takes a village.'