Nicholson aiming to do Bandon, Ireland, and her absent coach proud
EVEN after her biggest win, it was hard not to feel the loss. A fortnight ago in Abbotstown, as Laura Nicholson sprinted across the line to become Irish U-20 crosscountry champion, she was met, inevitably, by a wave of emotions.
Firstly, the pain – a hazy fog of fatigue that caused the Bandon teenager to wobble through the finishing chute holding the ropes for support, the way a punchdrunk boxer does in a 12-round slugfest. “I don’t think I’d ever raced that hard in my life,” she said, and it showed.
After that, the elation – a flood of endorphins as congratulations rained in for what was a brilliant achievement by the 17-year-old, who had coasted away from athletes two years her senior.
And then, inevitably, a touch of sadness. When the sea of goodwill retreated and Nicholson had a moment to ref lect, she felt the absence of the woman who’d helped forge her into the athlete she is, but couldn’t be there on her proudest day. “I’m sure she’d have been delighted,” said Nicholson.
The first time she met Catherine Duggan, Nicholson had just joined Bandon AC as a 10-year-old. “We used to be so scared of her as she used to make everyone go to the cross-country and run on the teams,” she says. “But when we got to know her we realised she’s so lovely.”
Duggan’s devotion to the club was well known in Bandon – she’d first joined in 1967 at the age of nine and driven it forward with zeal ever since. She knew how sport could shape young lives, so made it her mission to bring everyone she could to athletics – then keep them involved.
Over time she helped Bandon become one of the Ireland’s biggest, and most successful, clubs, and today it has almost 700 members. “Catherine always made sure athletes were there even if they didn’t want to run,” recalls Nicholson. “But she always made it fun. She understood when we were younger that our whole life wasn’t running.”
Nicholson had started out as a multi-eventer, before eventually finding her way to distancerunning, where she came to view Duggan as a friend as much as a coach. “Catherine was so open, you could tell her anything and she’d always help you out,” she says. “It didn’t matter how good you were, she cared that you were there running for the club.”
In 2008, Duggan was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent chemotherapy, but made a full recovery and was soon back at Bandon AC, developing young talents like Nicholson, along with coach Frank Stam.
With a long, loping stride that floats over the ground, the youngster proved effective running against her peers, and by the time she reached third year at Bandon Grammar, she had dropped all other sports to focus on athletics.
It was clear she had international potential, and while not many coaches would be willing to give up such a talent, Duggan and Nicholson decided this year that it would be best if she worked with Steven Macklin, the national endurance coach who guides a group of promising teenagers in Cork City.
Late last year, Duggan learned her cancer had returned, though it wasn’t until June this year that it began to spread rapidly. “It happened so quickly,” said Nicholson. “She was texting me reminding me to enter competitions one day and the next day she was in hospital.”
Days later, she passed away at a hospice in Cork. Amid the grief, her son Ronan could only laugh when he saw that in those final days Catherine had been writing relay team line-ups on the back of her menu cards. “To the end,” he says, “she was at that stuff.”
Macklin, who had coached Ronan in his teenage years, knew just how big a loss she was. “She was the godmother of that club,” he says. “The amount of hours, time and effort she put in, everybody down there recognised that. She was phenomenal.”
As the summer rolled on, Nicholson progressed well under Macklin’s training. Meanwhile Catherine’s son Ronan took over from his mother in coaching another promising Bandon runner, Fiona Everard. For both teenagers, November 26 was the big day, the national crosscountry championships, where European spots were on offer.
In the U-20 4,000m race, Nicholson seized command with a lap to run to leave her rivals trailing. “It was a dream come true,” she says. “Qualifying for a major championship is always the goal and now I want to make the most of it.”
Everard, meanwhile, came home fifth to also earn a spot on the team at tomorrow’s European Cross-Country Championships in Samorin, Slovakia. Nicholson reasons. “If it wasn’t for Catherine, I wouldn’t still be in athletics.”
But here she is, ready to pull on the Irish vest alongside her clubmate and friend – two girls from Bandon lining up with Europe’s best. The kind of thing Catherine would have loved.