With the benefits of consistent training now kicking in and a new level of confidence emerging, the Irish runner has made great progress in 2025

Any lingering doubts have at last been dispelled. Sarah Healy’s victory at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in March was the highlight of an indoor season that included Irish (indoor) records in the 1500m (4:01.62) and 3000m (8:30.79). Her remarkable year has continued with Diamond League top three finishes in Rabat (third in the 3000m with a PB of 8:27.02), Rome (first over 1500m in 3:59.17) and Paris (second over 1500m in a PB of 3:57.15). 

The evidence is irrefutable; Healy has arrived. 

That’s not to say, however, that she’s unaccustomed to success. A former 1500m and 3000m European under-18 champion, as well as European under-20 and under-23 1500m silver medallist, the 24-year-old was an exceptional junior and knows what it takes to make the podium. Her record of qualification for major championships is also impressive, but the fact that she’d missed out on semi-finals and finals in recent years had remained a source of frustration.    

Much has been said of her improved confidence, but the law graduate – coached by Jenny Meadows and Trevor Painter since late 2022 – is rightly keen for people to see beyond that to the simple merits of hard work. That European indoor title was certainly a weight off her shoulders. “Not the medal as such,” she says, “but just to have a good performance at a championship because I’d struggled with that a bit in the past.” More notably it was the continuation of the positive momentum she’d built over the winter and reward for her consistency in training since linking up with the Manchester-based M11 track club.

“Physically, I’d say consistency is probably the one thing [that has led to improvement this year],” says Healy, who is now the second-fastest Irishwoman of all time over 1500m behind Ciara Mageean. “I’ve trained consistently with Jenny and Trevor for two years now and I guess I’ve just adapted fully to the training and it’s beginning to show.

“It’s also my mindset. My approach to racing is allowing me to translate what we’ve been working on in training into the races a lot better. Going into the Diamond League races I was thinking about competing and trying to beat as many people and finishing as highly as possible, rather than just sitting in and hoping for a fast time, and I think that’s how I race best.

“I feel a lot more confident this year. I’ve worked out a few things that I felt were holding me back and I guess I probably feel a bit more free from internal pressure. I’m just able to race a bit more freely now without fear of the consequences, and the more often you do that the more confident you become; but I train really hard, too – it’s not just that I have a better mindset now – I put the work in physically to be able to have these performances.”

The transition from student to professional athlete was a challenging one. While Meadows and Painter were a huge help – for example, when Healy first moved to Manchester after graduating in 2023 she didn’t have anywhere to stay so she temporarily lived with her coaches – the reality of life as a full-time athlete was hard at first to comprehend.

She reminds herself how lucky she is to get to do this as a job but, looking back to last year, she admits that she was: “Probably struggling a little bit with that aspect of it. The fact that it was an Olympic year as well, the two together maybe created a bit of pressure. 

“I think in order to achieve at the highest level in this sport, which is obviously what I want to do, it has to be your whole life – and it is, there’s no way around it really – but it’s also important to be able to switch off and I think I probably struggled a bit with that last year. 

“Even just being away from home, it’s not like I go back to Ireland to see my family and friends on my rest day. Everyone I’m around here is also in this, which can be a lot, but I think it’s important just to recognise that and to have ways to switch off mentally and to keep your perspective. I’ve probably done that a bit better this year which has helped me relax and perform better too.”

Healy grew up in Monkstown, Dublin, and enjoyed a variety of sports as a youngster, but she started working together with Eoghan Marnell – her first (and only) coach prior to joining Meadows and Painter – in her early teens. His impact was substantial. “I think he developed me really well,” she says. “There was definitely a lot of emphasis on endurance, so I have him to thank for my ability to handle that side of training now. He just created a great base for me going forward and it seems to have worked really well to have that and then layer on top of it with a slightly different stimulus under Jenny and Trevor.”

Interestingly, she had never considered Meadows and Painter as future coaches. Marnell, in contrast, saw their potential and approached them on her behalf. “I thought it was maybe an unusual suggestion because I saw them more as an 800m training group and that definitely wasn’t the way I trained back then,” says Healy. “Somehow he just had the foresight to think that would work for me.”

Marnell recently told her a story. They’d been over in Birmingham for the 2022 Diamond League and he’d overheard Painter speaking with Keely Hodgkinson, who at the time was an Olympic and world silver medallist. 

Painter had told her to ‘go out and have fun’; Marnell had heard that and it stuck with him: “He thought: ‘There’s someone that’s performing at the highest level but they’re keeping it pretty light-hearted’ and I guess he thought that approach would work for me,” says Healy. “I’m obviously really grateful he made that suggestion.”

Marnell played a significant part in Healy’s development and the pair remain close. Although his training was predominantly endurance-based, it successfully laid the foundations for Meadows and Painter to work their own magic and, two years down the line, his decision to approach them is paying off. Fittingly, he’s still one of the first people she’s in touch with after every race.

While consistency and adaptation to training over the last two years have contributed to Healy’s progress in 2025, so too have how she trains and the presence and influence of training partners that include Olympic champion Hodgkinson and Olympic bronze medallist Georgia Hunter Bell.

“It’s obviously a great training group and I feel very lucky to be part of it,” she says. “It was definitely a change when I went from one to the other, but Jenny and Trevor were really good at looking at what I’d done before and easing me into it. 

“I think the main way it’s changed is the higher intensity and I probably run slightly less mileage with more cross training. I feel like my body has adapted really well to it and I’ve been pretty healthy since I joined, and obviously I’ve improved. 

“I think my endurance has improved as well – it’s not like we neglect that type of training – but I think the base I have from the training I used to do has allowed me to adapt to Jenny and Trevor’s training without losing that, and I know I can still run a good 3000m!

“We’re away on camp a lot, too,” she adds. “I feel like they [Meadows and Painter] don’t really compromise on things like that when they know it’s what we need to be the best. For example, we went to St Moritz before the outdoor season this year because they’d identified that as an area where we could benefit. I guess they’re always changing things around to see how we can get better and I felt like that worked for me and has helped me run really well.”

After a series of impressive performances, two-time Olympian Healy can now look ahead to this summer’s World Athletics Championships with confidence, something that hasn’t always come naturally to her.

There’s still work to do – “I don’t at all feel like I have everything figured out, I’m constantly trying to improve my mental and physical game,” she says – but with a combination of consistent training, improved mindset and a well-practiced race strategy, she knows she can get the best out of herself when it matters.

“I think when you have positive momentum you just have to take it and run with it,” she concludes. “You have to try and capitalise on it because it’s not every year that you’re going to have that and be healthy, and fit, and fast. There’s a long time between now and Tokyo but given my last few results – and obviously my positive performance at the European Indoor Championships – I definitely feel more confident that I can perform to the best of my ability at the World Championships, and that’s all I can ask for.”