Back for the future: Ciara Kearns ready to take on the world

Ciara Kearns goes back for the future next week in Finland.

The Carrick woman lines up at the World Masters Athletics Championship. There, she’s aiming to add to the European Masters long jump gold she won in Braga in February.

It’s 21 years now since Kearns, then representing Cellbridge AC, donned the Irish vest at the 2001 World Youth Championships in Debrecen.

When the world stopped spinning two years ago following the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Kearns’ axis kept turning. Her training schedule and location had to be altered, but she found a way.

That work was crucial when she headed for Braga earlier this year.

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“I had stuff to call on,” the Finn Valley AC ace says.

“I wasn’t starting from the beginning when I came back on-track. I had work done from the beach, from the car park. There were benefits. I kept going, for my sanity more than anything else. I’m glad we aren’t there anymore, but it has all added up.

“Everything has been leading up to this. It’s a very short turnaround. I’ve been working my ass off for two years and then it’s just: ‘Boom!’”

Kearns competes at the Ratina Stadium on Tuesday and has designs on jumping out to 5.80m. At the Europeans, Kearns bagged gold with a 5.39m leap. Then, she beat off Magolna Kresz from Hungary (5.18m) and Germany’s Aurica Zucht (5.17m) to top the charts.

“The work is done now,” she says.

“It’s still maximum effort, but not as much quantity. I’m hoping to peak spot-on by July 5.

“I started to taper my sessions and de-loading in weights in the gym so I’m not lifting as heavy. I have a lot of work put in. I’d been doing that since the carpark stage during Covid.”

Kearns coaches hurdles and jumps at Finn Valley AC and uses her sessions to get her own work done.

Her group has proved invaluable over the last few months. Athlete Kathy Bannigan, she says has been ‘a life saver for me’.

“There are five or six of us here on a regular basis,” Kearns says. “Kathy has been so brilliant. She coaches away and encourages away at me. I was having a bit of bother my mark. I just wasn’t running in properly and wasn’t going fast at all. I was losing speed and momentum up to the board.

“Kathy was like: ‘You need to bring the speed you had in the relays at the Donegals’. I’ve probably added 30-40 centimetres, just with speed. That’s a big boost. It’s huge in jumps terms.”

After Braga, Kearns paused briefly for a couple of weeks, but the full focus has been on Tampere for some time now.

She says: “It’s in my head all the time - even when I’m asleep, I dream of these massive jumps.

“I took a wee break, two weeks off but the focus switched very quickly to the Worlds, though.

“It’s everything. I stopped drinking two years ago. I eat really well and sleep really well; too well maybe. I try to look after mind, body and everything. Covid was a big part of that. I could have gone either way and I went the healthy way.”

In 2001, Kearns looked around the Gyulai István Atlétikai Stadion in Debrecen and wondered.

“I didn’t realise what I had,” she says.

“I just didn’t understand. I didn’t get why these Americans were there with their headphones on, all focussed.”

Now, as she gets ready to board the plane on Friday with her family, including her son, Nathan, in tow, it all feels different.

“I reckon it’ll come to fruition,” she says.

“The ingredients are there. I’m excited about it. The family are coming over and it’ll be nice for them to see what it’s all about, especially Nathan. He seems me up at 6.30am doing stretches, yoga. I will be nervous on the day, but I’m really looking forward to this.”