Mark on right track for more world glory
ON a night when he was competing against two other world champions and many more hugely talented sportspeople besides, Mark O’Shea expressed shock after being crowned Sport Star of the Year 2017.
The 46-year-old Drogheda & District athlete captured the World Masters Indoor M45 800 and 1500m double in South Korea last March and was named AAI Masters Athlete of the Year, but he didn’t see this latest accolade coming!
‘It’s a much bigger shock when you look at the other contenders, especially when one of those guys can lift my entire family!’ he reflected afterwards.
‘When I heard ‘March’ being called out, I was thinking ‘oh s***, that’s me!’.’
Originally from Skerries but based in Bettystown for a number of years, Mark’s athletics career took off late in life, and he credits a few people for putting him on the right path.
‘I ran as a kid and then stopped when the Leaving Cert came along and played football for a couple of years, and then I started running marathons in my 30s.
‘Then somebody called Chris Keeling from Balbriggan saved my life one day. He said ‘you’re not very good after you pass the mile marker in a race are you. You should try the track’.
‘So I tried the track and I haven’t looked back, thank God. It’s great. The shorter distances suit me down to the ground and it’s a new lease of life.
‘My coach Ian O’Reilly’s been phenomenal. He competes himself, but he’s been injured pretty much like myself. Then just as things start going well for him he gets injured again. Despite all that he comes out every single day and stands out in the rain in his boots under his umbrella calling the times for three, four, five groups of people going round the track.
‘Then he’s taking the junior team down to Athlone on a Sunday after being up in Dublin doing courses, and he’s training with us on a Saturday. He flew home from the States this morning at 10 and was up at the training session at 12 and he’s got other kids racing in Athlone tomorrow.
‘His training methods are obviously superb because there are some great young lads coming through. There’s one guy yesterday who hopefully is on his way to a National camp, so it’s looking good for Drogheda & District.’
As with many top sportspeople, Mark - who has a job with Investec Bank - also has his family to thank for their support.
‘My dad was a marathon runner and weightlifter, so I got a feel for the sport from him and my mother, just like my wife, is the supporting crew. It’s a massive commitment, six or seven days a week and sometimes twice a day, and our two kids play football and both run as well.
‘Helen pretty much is the one bringing them round to the football when I can’t and it’s a hell of a lot of work for her, and without that I wouldn’t be able to do what I do.
‘I do keep saying to her that she should get into the club because she would be a good competitor and she keeps resisting it, and I’m going ‘well, you should because you’re really good’ - but I’m kind of glad she’s not because if she did then my time would be eroded.
‘But it works very well and she’s very patient.’
Injury has taken its toll since the World Championships last spring, but Mark hopes to run in the European and World Championships this year, having just returned to action over the weekend.
‘I’ve been injured pretty much since I came back from Korea, with calf strains and athletes tendon tears or strains, but there’s Europeans at thee end of March in Spain and there’s a good crowd going over and hopefully I’ll be on that plane racing.
‘I keep fit. I’m on the bike or my dad’s stationary bike. We’ve a new gym in the house and it never stops because you’re always afraid of losing fitness and Ian is the same. He’s been injured and he’s always on his bike trying to keep the heart rate up.
‘So when you’re finally able to run, at least you haven’t lost too much and you might actually be physically stronger because of the amount of gym work we’re doing It’s a shock when you look at the other contenders, especially when one of those guys can lift my entire family! when we can’t run.’
Further away on the horizon, Mark sees a time when it might be best to hang up his running spikes, but just not yet.
‘If I could get on the track for the Europeans in March, that would be great and hopefully I could get a medal. If I could win it, great, but I wouldn’t like to win easy. Hopefully the competition is good and it’s a bit of a struggle because it would mean something more.
‘Then at the end of the year we have the World Championships outdoors in Malaga in Spain, so [winning] the 800 and 1500 there would be phenomenal and that would be a way to finish because I’d be happy then.
‘I’m just not ready to coach yet - we’ve a great coach - but maybe another year or a year and a half and then I am retiring.’