Kelly McGrory hoping to enter new world in Budapest

When Kelly McGrory was making her plans and setting goals for 2023, Budapest didn’t enter the mind.

Yet, on Tuesday McGrory touched down in the Hungarian capital. The Tir Chonaill AC athlete is a part of Ireland’s 4x400m relay squad and will hope to make the cut when Irish officials select the four to run in Saturday’s heat.

The Donegal record holder over 400m and the 400m hurdles, this is a new world for the 26-year-old from Laghey.

“If you’d told me, even a year or two ago, that I would be getting an opportunity to go on the girls relay panel, I wouldn’t have believed it,” McGrory tells Donegal Live. “It is a massive achievement for me and it’s not something I thought that I’d reach. When I was looking at my race plans for the year, it was flagged to me as something for me. It wasn’t unrealistic, I suppose. It just never entered my head until it was said to me so I’ve had it in the back of my mind since.

“I’m buzzing. It’s the biggest championships I’ll have been to. The experience itself will be a highlight.”

In June, McGrory ran the third leg in a national-record breaking quartet in France. Alongside Healy, Róisín Harrison and Sharlene Mawdsley, they clocked 3:30.43 at Meeting EAP d'Annecy.

Earlier this month, Phil Healy withdrew from the Irish squad, in order to recover ‘mentally and physically’ for the Olympic Games.

McGrory is among six athletes in contention for four places when the gun goes on Saturday evening.

Sprint sensation Rhasidat Adeleke is in consideration, along with McGrory, Harrison, Mawdsley, Sophie Becker and Cliodhna Manning.

McGrory won over the 400m hurdles in Finland recently, going just shy of her PB when finishing in 57.27 seconds to win gold at the Tampere Motonet GP meeting. That was just five hundredths of a second off her Donegal record of 57.22, set in June 2022.

“Even watching that race from Finland, there were things I know I could correct,” McGrory says. “I feel in PB territory. It has taken me a few races to get back to where i was. I was I was further on at the start of the season, but I’m in good form at the minute.

“The small, technical things mean so much - they can add so much to your time. One obvious error could save me .2 or .3 of a second. We deal in such small margins.”

Since returning from Tampere, McGrory has been working entirely on the flat, zoning in on Budapest.

“It all about getting sharp now and focussed on the flat speed,” McGrory says. “When I get out there, we’ll do some sessions as a team that will all be about sharpening up, baton changes and the technical things.”

McGrory is working these days as a sports development officer with the Irish Wheelchair Association. Based in Limerick, she is coached by Drew and Hayley Harrison, although she still represents her native Tir Chonaill AC.

“I still keep in touch with Eamon Harvey) all the time,” says McGrory.

Four years ago, McGrory helped an Irish mixed 4x400m relay team set a new national record of 3:24.14 at the European Games in Minsk. Andrew Mellon, Sinead Denny and Luke Lennon-Ford also ran with McGrory doing the third leg in 54.4 seconds.

“That exposure from Minsk should help,” she says, “The set up is pretty much the same, but even just the experience of walking into a big stadium will be huge. This week, the stadium will be a lot more full, but the same ‘wow’ panic won’t be there. I should be a bit more relaxed.”

At this year’s National Senior Championships, McGrory was pipped to gold in the 400m hurdles by Jessica Tappin.

Her long-time partner, Thomas Barr, who won his 11th national title this year, is sitting out Budapest due to an injury.

“It was tough to take because we’re so intertwined with training and competition,” McGrory says. “We were just saying, right before he got injured, how it was so exciting as it was to be our first major championships together. With the injury, it’s just too high risk. It’s not as if it would be his first and he just wanted to get on the line and be there. Especially with the Olympics in 12 months, it wouldn’t be worth a risk.”