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McMullen flies high at Loughborough International

Adam McMullen racked up a personal best at the Loughborough International in England last Sunday
Adam McMullen racked up a personal best at the Loughborough International in England last Sunday Adam McMullen racked up a personal best at the Loughborough International in England last Sunday

BELLAGHY man Adam McMullen carried on where he left off at the end of the indoor season with a personal best in his first competition of the outdoor track season.

McMullen cleared 7.77m to finish third in last Sunday’s Loughborough International in England. Earlier this year, the Alan Kennedy-coached athlete had recorded a lifetime best of 7.80m in Athlone to earn the right to represent Ireland at the European Indoor Championships in Prague.

“Preparations have been going quite well since the Euros,” said McMullen.

“I’ve been getting a little bit faster and a little bit more technically consistent each week. Technically, I'm still working on trying to keep as much speed through the board as possible when taking off and it's an area Alan has a good eye for and is able to improve me on. This would be a major reason for my improvements in the sand this year.

"Competing in Prague helped me greatly. Firstly, to be able to execute correct technique under pressure and to not tighten up and waste a jump like I did in the second round and, most importantly, to not see the big names I was jumping against as idols and to view them as my competition.”

McMullen’s Loughborough jump was even more impressive as it came in the final round of the competition and was made into a 1.3m/s headwind. Mark Forsythe (8:14) and Ciarán McDonagh (8:07) are the only two Irishmen to have bettered eight metres, but it looks like the 24-year-old could join that exclusive club very shortly. However, he is not making any rash predictions.

“The 7.77 was the best I could muster on the chilly day and, as I hit the board on the last round, I knew I had nailed it and couldn't have gotten it any better," McMullen added.

"I just hope now, with more heat and a wind behind me instead of in my face, I should go out a bit further. If it's 8:00m, then brilliant."

Such is the global standard at the moment, an eight-metre leap would not even qualify the Crusaders athlete for the World Athletics Championships in Beijing this August. The qualifying standard is 8:10, while the mark required for next year’s Rio Olympics is a further five centimetres. But McMullen is not despondent.

“If I jump 8:00m, I might as well try and get another 10cm on that to get to the Worlds," he said.

"And if I do that, sure what's another five centimetres for the Olympic standard? I'll not focus on trying to jump 8:00m as that's when things start to go wrong.

"I'll just enjoy the places I go to and the people I'm with and, when it comes to competition time, I'll just do what I've been doing in training and the distances should come.”