The first thing Chris O’Donnell needed to give himself when returning from the European Championships in Rome earlier this month was a quick time out. After racing three events in five days, starting with gold in the mixed 4x400m relay where he ran the opening leg, there was bound to be a comedown of sorts.
Now he’s back building towards the mixed relay at next month’s Paris Olympics, having already raced that event in Tokyo, and the last two World Championships. This weekend’s National Championships in Santry should seal his selection, where the Sligo athlete will seek to win a sixth 400m title in seven years.
“The Europeans were so early in the season, you could easily allow yourself to get very caught up in it,” O’Donnell says. “Then forget there’s actually a lot more going on this season.
“It did take a toll, no doubt about it. That was definitely the quickest week of my life. And a part of that was, I got probably two or three nights’ worth of sleep in that whole week.
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“I ran the [mixed relay] final that night, and I slept between 7am and 8am in the morning. Trust me, that wasn’t partying or anything like that, that was me lying in bed just unable to contain that buzz.
“Then I ran the [400m] heat, didn’t get a chance to come home and nap that afternoon because we had a medal ceremony, and that was almost an even bigger high than the night before.
“And then it was coming into the next semi-final, and then the [men’s 4x400m] relay. So there’s no doubt it took a toll. I was still on a high for a few days when I came home. Then, to be fair, it did hit me, but you have to deal with that, I’ve got this week leading up to nationals to freshen up.”
Now aged 26, his best of 45.26 seconds run in 2022, O’Donnell makes no apologies for his decision to prioritise the relay in recent years, even if that has occasionally impacted on his individual aspirations. “I get asked the question a lot, ‘would you rather be a finalist or a relay medallist?’ It’s an absolute no-brainer, it would be the medal all day long. Even myself over the years, I have tended to prioritise the relay on the basis of that.
“Even this year, I’ve probably taken a hit on my individual Olympic hopes. I went to the Bahamas for a few weeks [for the World Relays], losing a lot of time there with jet lag, and unable to run individually in those big races. Even still at the Europeans, it was the priority and I’ve absolutely no regrets because we’re getting success with that.
[ European Athletics Championships: How Ireland’s historic week in Rome unfoldedOpens in new window ]
“And I love being part of a team, I came from a football background and I liked the team aspect of it as well. Some athletes actually tend to get better through the rounds so, personally, I wouldn’t be skipping any relays, but obviously everyone’s training programme is different.”
It’s still unclear, though more unlikely, if Rhasidat Adeleke or Sharlene Mawdsley will be available for the mixed relay in Paris, though for O’Donnell, that won’t impact on his personal goals.
“We just have to do our thing, try run the best ourselves. Obviously, it’s not a secret that we’d love her [Adeleke] to run, but that’s a decision to be made by herself and her coaches and whatever they think is best. If she doesn’t run, we’ve made finals before without her. We’ve got good athletes to step up.”
From the same Sligo townland of Grange that produced Olympic swimmer Mona McSharry, who is also set for her second Games in Paris, O’Donnell has been based at Loughborough University in England since 2018, though he hasn’t been afraid to mix up his training, moving coaches this year to work with Stewart Marshall.
“I’ve actually had four different coaches, in that time. Some of those were enforced, and some of those were decisions that I made. But it’s a really good environment, I just take it year by year.
“If I’m not running well, I won’t stay here, simple as that. I’ll make that move. And there’s so many different groups, different events, and because I’ve been in so many different groups, I’ve got to know everyone in the building. It’s very sociable, there’s so much quality, and especially in terms of British male 400m running you could say, where almost their whole 400m relay team is based there.
“So I like feeding off those guys. And they like having me too as someone different, the Irish guy, I’m not going to steal their spot on a relay team, or anything like that, so there’s no real rivalry, we use each other to get better.”
It was through his football background, playing with Benbulben FC, and also Kennedy Cup youth schoolboy level with Sligo/Leitrim, that he got involved in athletics, and he has no regrets whatsoever about his preference now.
“That was how I ended up running, really. I was on the wing and I was fast. They wanted me to get faster, so they sent me to the track to train. From there, I was coaxed into a few competitions, I didn’t have the intention to do that, and then it started going better. And it just got to the stage where I was on the Irish Schools team and I couldn’t really ignore that.”
“So that team element wasn’t alien to me at all. This whole journey started at the World Relays in 2021. We went there, ‘let’s just see what we can do, can we qualify for the Tokyo Olympics?’ We had success there, we had success in Tokyo, we made the final. [In ] 2022 in Oregon we made the final. [In] 2023 in Budapest we were sixth. Every year I’ve kind of just followed this path and followed this journey so it’s kind of been automatic for me.
“In the Bahamas, obviously it was disappointing not to be picked for that, it was a bit of a shock [Cillín Greene ran the opening leg]. I could have spent the next few months sulking about that, but I decided to just knuckle down and run as fast as I could, and so that’s just going to be the same this weekend.”
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