News

Georgie Hartigan over comes the odds to gain European Indoor selcection

February 23rd 2021, 12:00:00 am

Georgie Hartigan, daughter of runners Bev and John Hartigan surprised herself in Ireland at the weekend, not only in winning her race but posting a Euroepan quailfying time in the process.

Georgie Hartigan

At the Irish Life Health Micro meet in Ireland, which served as the trials for the Irish team to go to the European Indoor Championships in Torun, Poland in March, Georgie Hartigan had the run of her life to win the race and post a qualifying time to gain herself selection.

Georgie comes from a talented running family. Her mother, Bev Hartigan who was also a Stag, represented GB & NI at the Commonwealth Games in Auckland and went on to run 2 hours 36 minutes for the marathon. Her father, John, a Tipton Harrier, excelled at a range of events including 1500m and 3000m Steeplechase. With this pedigree Georgie has always hoped to succeed in the sport and this will be her first international competition.

She explained to us what this means to her and her journey to get there:

"I orginally targetted the European Indoors last summer and this was my goal for the winter. This winter has been really tough trying to train for the indoors with lack of track access and bad weather. At one point it looked as though there would be no indoor races too. When races were announced it was quite stressful trying to get into some races and then some were cancelled. I had a bit of a wobbly race last weekend which wasn't what I wanted at all, and I knew I was in better shape than the time I ran. So, this weekend was my last chance to try and qualify and I just had to go for it.

I was so delighted with the time I ran as I didn't exect to run so fast. I'm so excited to get out there and compete. It's my first interantional vest so I am really looking forward to it. My aspirations are just to go out and give it a shot and see what happens."

We wish Georgie every success and this is just the start of a very exciting journey for her.