Sarah Lavin
Athletics
BIOGRAPHY
A European Youth Olympic bronze medallist in 2011 and a European Junior silver medallist in 2013, Sarah finally won her first senior medal – bronze at the European Games – in 2023. She also broke Derval O’Rourke’s long-standing senior record at World Championships and finished 2023 by breaking the Irish 100m flat record (11:27).
In an event where medals are decided by 1000ths of a second she has come agonisingly close to other podiums; fourth at the 2019 World Student Games, fifth at the 2022 Europeans, and twice a World semi-finalist. The nine-time Irish champion was in terrific form ahead of this year’s Europeans but uncharacteristically clipped a hurdle to finish seventh, yet bounced back by running a season’s best of 12:66 a week later.