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Sinead Diver tells us her extraordinary story

The London Marathon was a memorable one for Sinead Diver. The Belmullet, Co Mayo athlete finished...
Raf Diallo
Raf Diallo

19.35 30 Apr 2019


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Sinead Diver tells us her extraordinary story


Raf Diallo
Raf Diallo

19.35 30 Apr 2019


Share this article


The London Marathon was a memorable one for Sinead Diver.

The Belmullet, Co Mayo athlete finished in a high of 7th, only a decade on from when she first took up running at the age of 32 after giving birth to her first child.

That phenomenal marathon performance means she's all but certain to qualify for the 2020 Olympics where she will represent Australia, having been based there since 2002.

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Tonight, she joined us on the line to talk about her remarkable experience.

"The main was to get a qualifier for the Tokyo Olympics next year," she said.

"And I run for Australia and marathon running is really strong there at the moment. So I knew I really need a 2:26 or under to be in contention for a spot.

"Last October in Melbourne, I did a 2:25:11 and the weather was really bad so I knew I could go faster. So I was hoping for maybe a 2:23 or 2:24 but it was really windy in the second half again.

"So I'm really happy with the 2:24. It was more or less what I was aiming for which is good."

Diver also talked about how she got into marathon running at a relatively late age. But she also explained the situation regarding athletics when she was a child.

"The primary school that I went to, we didn't have any sport," she said.

"There was no sports day, there was no PE. We would randomly have a bit of sport. But the focus was academics and it was exactly the same in the secondary school I went to.

"It was a really good school and everything but it was run by nuns and they were kind of a bit perturbed about girls playing sport. We were allowed to play basketball but that was it. I think for the five years I was there, we had one sports day. So I just never got into it. I didn't know anything about athletics or the time when I was growing up, we didn't have an athletics club or anything."


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