John Woods competed in the men’s marathon at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, finishing 52nd in 2:25:38 in one of the most gruelling performances by an Irish Olympian – suffering from cramps from as early as three kilometres yet refusing to abandon despite the agony. In his own words it was ‘easily the worst experience of my life’ but he ‘did not travel to Seoul to drop out’ and battled on to the end in conditions that proved brutal for distance runners.

Prior to the Games, in April 1988 in Wexford, Woods won the national marathon title in a championship best time of 2:11:30 – a run that placed him among the leading Irish marathon performers of his generation.