Steven making a dash towards the Olympics

It seems virtually certain that, as was the case in Beijing two years ago, Mullingar will be represented in the boxing arena when the world’s greatest sporting extravaganza comes to nearby London in 2012.However, a young man who “never really had an interest in running going into St. Finian’s College” some seven years ago, has raced up the Irish sprinting ladder with the same rapidity he displays when the starting gun goes off, and Steven Colvert has set the Olympic Games in two years’ time as his definite career target.Still not turned 20 years of age, Steven’s progress has been truly remarkable, culminating in a high-profile appearance at the recent European Athletics Championships in Barcelona. The latter city is often jovially linked to everybody’s favourite incompetent waiter, Manuel, for his infamous “I know nawthing” remark in a classic Fawlty Towers episode, but clearly Steven knows an awful lot about sprinting.He has developed from a situation where “the only time I ever really ran was on Sports Day in Finian’s, where Shane Boggs dominated middle-distance events”, under the tutelage of Brian Sheridan, to being an integral part of the Irish team in the Spanish city last month. When he began studying in UCD for a degree course in Biochemistry and Microbiology, Steven modestly states that “I signed up on one of the Open Days to see how fast I was, and it kind of developed from there. Going into college I knew I was faster than the lads in my school, but wasn’t sure how fast that was.”The answer to that conundrum is clearly “very fast” as he was given a sports scholarship in his second year in Belfield, where he now combines intensive study with a very promising career as an outstanding sprinter, mainly over 100 and 200 metres, with best times of 10.52 and 20.90 achieved to date respectively. His immediate targets are to lower these mind-boggling times for us armchair viewers to 10.4 and 20.8, with his current PB for his favoured 200 metres being .15 of a second off Olympic ‘B’ standard and .3 of a second off ‘A’ standard. So how do you improve your times by these blink-of-an-eye margins? Hard work, obviously, and “luck with injuries; alcohol and fast food as big no-nos; a lot of speed endurance work and weights,” according to Steven. “I have no dietician, but it’s a case of everything in moderation”, he adds, while confessing to being partial to “the occasional fry-up”! While height is obviously a factor for sprinters (“I got bigger and bigger as I got better and better at it” and at 6’4” Steven is identical to his hero, Usain Bolt), “you need to be like a greyhound.”The very personable and helpful Steven recounted his standard day to this columnist, the winter and summer routines differing obviously due to the academic year lecture and study requirements. Generally, in wintertime at 3pm on a Monday afternoon he comes under the wing of his coach John Coghlan for two to three hours, followed by a quick snack before gym work starts at 7.30pm. Even in summer, Steven concedes that “it is hard to get a job with my running commitments and the travelling”. His scholarship is on “a per year basis”, but tentative offers have been made in recent days from US sprint colleges after his exploits at Barcelona and he is currently “considering options” in that regard.The emergence of athletes such as Paul Hession and David Gillick has brought new-found respect to sprinting in this country with the words ‘sprinter’ and ‘Ireland’ in the same sentence for many years having been considered an oxymoron. The former has given Steven “a few tips when I have been away at meets with him” and he has “a lot of respect” for both Hession and Gillick. Ironically, the withdrawal of the latter from the 4 x 400 metres relay team in Barcelona (with the Dubliner gutted after failing to win an individual medal) brought unexpected coverage to Steven’s participation in the European Championships, with the young Mullingar man joining Brian Gregan, Brian Murphy and Gordon Kennedy at short notice in the Irish line-up.“It was a shock to the system, as it’s double my distance, but I was happy to get out there and have another run in front of such a large crowd. Barcelona was never about winning medals, but all about experience and getting a taste of what it’s like at that level. It was a baptism of fire, but a win-win situation for me nonetheless. While hanging around waiting at airports, if I’m tired after a race or just want to get there before a race, is a bit of a pain, I’m new in the sport and at the moment I’m loving the lifestyle,” Steven states, as he rhymes off a list of what looks like successive weekends in Barcelona, Brussels, England and Switzerland.Steven’s mother Maria and grandfather Brendan, a well-known and respected former garda in the Mullingar locality, were among those who cheered him on in Barcelona. It is to be hoped that another Mullingar man, Michael O’Leary will be transporting a huge contingent from the town to London in 2010 to cheer on Steven Colvert, who accepts that the venue will be a distinct advantage to Irish athletes. “Rather than us having to acclimatise, for a change the Jamaicans and the Americans will have to adjust to the cold,” he jokes. However, with Steven due to reach his peak as a sprinter come the middle of this decade, perhaps the XXXI Olympiad in Rio de Janeiro will see the affable Mullingar man at his very best. For the moment, in the words of famous athletics coach Sam Mussabini, he is likely just to “think of two things - the gun and the tape - and when you hear the one, just run like hell until you break the other.”Footnote. Any ticketless Kildare or Down fans living locally and keen to see their All-Ireland semi-final clash in comfort? Billy Mac’s annual Westmeath/Longford Carers’ Association function takes place in the Greville Arms Hotel in Mullingar next Tuesday night, August 24th. Billy is raffling two premium seats for Sunday week’s big game that night, courtesy of former PRO of the Westmeath GAA County Board, Patrick Doherty, now a leading official in Croke Park.