Fagan: I’m done with running so I’m quitting
MARTIN FAGAN eased a selection headache for Athletics Ireland as he announced his retirement from the sport yesterday and took himself out of the frame for the Rio Olympics.
The 31-year- old had been the only Irish competitor to attain the qualification mark for the Olympic marathon so far but Fagan, who returned from a two-year doping ban last year, told the Westmeath Independent that he was leaving the sport for ‘the sake of his mental health’.
The Mullingar native has battled depression in the past and he acknowledged there was a public backlash to his return to competitive athletics after testing positive for EPO in late 2011. Fagan is understood to have reached his decision l ast weekend and informed Athletics Ireland on Monday.
Fagan has raced primarily on the Irish road race circuit in the past year although he attained Olympic qualification in the Zurich marathon in April when he ran 2:16:09. The idea of Fagan going to Rio didn’t sit well within Irish athletics, though, and some of the sport’s top names voiced their opinion that he shouldn’t be considered for selection.
Only last month, European 800 metres silver medalist Mark English was adamant that Fagan should not be selected.
‘To be honest, I don’t think he should be picked,’ he said. ‘That’s my personal opinion. I believe if you have tested positive, you shouldn’t be let back in — the sport just needs that. If I were him, I would not compete in the sport again for the sake of it. If Martin Fagan loves the sport, he shouldn’t compete again.’
His views were echoed by former 400m European Indoor champion David Gillick, who stated last month: ‘Should he be selected? My personal view is no. Selection will send out the wrong message and I feel Martin himself knows this. I have nothing against him, he cheated and think he accepts what fate lies before him. If we are going to get tough on drugs, it starts at home and zero tolerance is the only way forward.’
Fagan, for his part, said he was finding it too difficult trying to juggle training and full-time work and he couldn’t commit enough time to training for the Olympics.
‘Working 50 hours a week, it just wasn’t happening,’ Fagan told his local newspaper. ‘Obviously the support that should have been there wasn’t and I understand why it wasn’t. If I was going to go, I would like to give myself a good shot of competing but working the way I am, I couldn’t do that. I woke up and didn’t want to run. For my own mental health, I’m happy not running.’
He admitted the past few months have been tough, because he knew that certain people didn’t want him competing again. ‘It’s never been easy because there was a backlash. Things like that don’t faze me much, they only faze me when they impact on my family and friends,’ said Fagan.
‘At the time, my friends did get upset. There were things said by some people who didn’t know anything about me.’
However, he praised family and friends for supporting him. ‘It was undeserving almost. I didn’t really expect it. When people around you believe in you, it does help. The retirement is probably going to disappoint some people but I have to l ook after my own mental health.’
Fagan has long been recognised as one of Ireland’s most talented long-distance runners, shattering John Treacy’s l ong- standing national half-marathon record in 2009, and qualifying for the 2008 Beijing Olympics on his f i rst attempt, although he withdrew from that race with an injury.
However, his positive test for the blood-boosting drug EPO in late 2011 rocked Irish athletics and while Fagan claimed mental health problems at the time contributed to his decision to take it, he was a contentious figure within Irish athletics for the past year.