Geraldine Finegan hoping to inspire other athletes following world title success

Geraldine Finegan has continued her quite simply remarkable career by taking the gold medal in the Tetradecathlon in Turnhout, Belgium at the Ultra Multi- Event World Championships.

This prestigious title saw 11 countries fighting it out for the honours, coming from as far away as the likes of Canada, Finland, South Africa, and all over Europe. But the end it a woman from county Louth that took the spoils to become the best in the world.

The Church Street native took part in 14 different track and field events over two grueling days, as they looked to find out who was the fittest women in the world.

The first day athletes needing to deal with soaring heat of around 33 degrees, on a day which began at 10 am and finished at 6.20 pm in the evening on both days.

Proceedings began with the 100M hurdles, which was Finegan’s best event, earning her the highest score of 1003 points. This was the highest and best score recorded from all taking part, with women as young as 24 to as old as 74yrs competing.

The high jump was next the agenda. Another first place finish followed, with the North-East Runners clubwoman bagging the highest point score of 955 points.

The Shot putt, 1500m, 400m hurdles and 200m races all followed one after another, with barely time to cool down before changing footwear and starting the next event.

Geraldine won gold in every event, leading the first day on 4903 points, with a Belgian 24-year-old, Gerda Andries, being the only person anywhere close to her in the standings, having secured 4088 points after Day 1.

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Day 2 started warm and sunny, with the 100m sprint race followed by the long jump, 400m race and the javelin throw.

A new world record for her age group was broken in this event and by a whole two metres. It put Geraldine way ahead of her closest rivals Andries, as well as talented throwing star Annilie Scholdstrom from Sweden.

The thunder and lightening lit up the sky and the heavens opened, as the track was filled with thick puddles of water and the poor weather ended up blowing the electronics out.

It was almost an hour before the championship was refitted and the starter gun working in accordance to the top World standards, which the event follows.

This meant running the 800M, 200M hurdles, discus and 3000m in cooler weather, but also on a drenched track and in an Irish kit which was soaking wet.

This did not deter Finegan, who already won 76 World and European medals and held six world records ahead of the championships, as part of a glittering athletics career.  Her goal to keep breaking world records and win more medals continued.

Full focus was needed and two more successful wins in both the middle distance and the hurdle races followed. Geraldine then threw the longest of all the masters throwers, setting yet another World age group record in the discus throw. For this she thanked she her new coach from the USA.

The sun was peeping through by now, as the sky began to clear by evening. After eight hours of competing, the last event started, which was the 3000M race.

The Dundalk veteran wanted to finish with 400 points from this race to make the massive breakthrough of 10,00 points. Only a few women have ever broke the 10,00 point barrier in multi event competitions.

Geraldine stormed through the final event with ease, bagging 525 points and smashing the highest score in all of the age categories with 10,125 points, beating Stephanie Brosens (8810 pts) and Petra Bruggman (8090 pts) to the overall title.

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Those women were 24 and 27 respectively, showing just how monumental an achievement this really was, her experience enough to outgun youthful women who are half her age.

Although the 14 events are fought tooth and nail to the line, the competitors help and cheer each other on just to finish each event, as there is a rule that you must finish every event to gain a medal.

The athletes then do a lap of honour, as they have all finished injury free and celebrate their highs and lows afterwards over champagne and strawberry’s, alongside a Belgian speciality of Frites, better known in Ireland as Chips, which are dipped in homemade mayonnaise.

All diets and healthy food habits are forgotten for the evening as bottles are cracked open and post-mortems are told.

“I would like to show everyone else who has had health issues and worry’s, that life isn’t an easy path, but don’t be afraid to face your fears head on and then look your goals in the eye” stressed Finegan when reflecting on her achievements.

“The biggest fear one has is in your own mind. Win that battle to make the first step and it gets easier and easier. The choice is yours.

“Don’t make excuses for being weak or making the wrong decisions. Learn to be stronger, more focused every day. One step can be a step closer to your dream, but you must sacrifice and not look for excuses, but reasons why you should and could achieve your dreams.”