Nadia switches focus to college after Power surge through Europe

Nadia Power, newly announced Toyota ambassador and Irish athlete, is looking ahead to the Olympic Games after a successful indoor season. Photo: James Crombie/Inpho

Sean McGoldrick

March 24 2021 02:30 AM

Nadia Power has yet to tot up all the bills, but she estimates her running has cost her €3,000 so far this year.

She is not classified as an elite athlete by Sport Ireland so is not a carded athlete, while she has yet to receive any allocation of her 2021 funding from Athletics Ireland.

“Getting our funding in time is a bit of an issue,” said the 23-year-old who twice set new Irish 800m indoor records this year before bowing out at the semi-finals in her inaugural appearance at the European Indoor championships.

“You do have to resort to your own savings. I am hoping to have (funding) in time for outdoors which should pay for (training) camp and my races.

“I’m lucky enough to get support from Dublin City University, adidas and Optimum Nutrition so those things do help but it’s fairly expensive. Hopefully, in the future, it’ll be significantly more doable.”

Last year she didn’t receive any Athletics Ireland funding until September and she is unsure that qualifying for the Olympics will be sufficient to be upgraded to carded athlete status.

“I’m not sure of the criteria. I’ve done what a lot of people on the Sport Ireland list have done but I’m not sure if the Olympics will be enough to go on it, to be honest. I think if I won a medal at the World University Games, that would do it, but they’re not meant to go ahead. But hopefully I’ll get better and get on it (the carded system) soon.”

Power, a final year business student in DCU, spent January attending a training camp in Portugal before embarking on an extraordinary trek through mainland Europe via plane, train, and automobile to indoor meetings. All the journeys were fraught due to the ongoing threat from the pandemic, and she had to undergo numerous Covid-19 tests along the way. “I even had a lab retest me and offer me free Covid-19 tests. There are a lot of good people out there and they kinda know your story and they want to help, and I really appreciate that.”

Though her Irish indoor record of 2:00.98 was eclipsed by American-based Síofra Cléirigh-Buttner (2:00.58), Power’s hectic racing itinerary which took her to Austria, France, Spain, and Poland yielded a significant dividend in terms of her Olympic qualification.

Lying 59th in the women’s 800m ranking list at the start of the year she is now 35th – comfortably inside the Olympic cut-off point. The key is to stay in that position between now and the end of the qualification process at the end of June.

By the time she begins her outdoor campaign in May, Power will have received a pair of the so-called super-spikes which adidas are currently developing. “What we have all learned is wear them or get left behind.” The Irish athletes who competed in the European Indoors had to self-isolate when they returned home after one member tested positive for Covid-19. But as Power was due to take a break from training it didn’t impact on her and the rest gave her an opportunity to catch up on her college work.

“I’m hell for leather with the college work right now. I’m in final year but I’m splitting it into two. It allows me to be more flexible and the lecturers are really, really supportive. I’ve had to ask for a good few extensions over the last few weeks and they said, ‘It’s no problem, we’ve been watching your results’, and that support is really nice.”

Nadia Power has been named as an official ambassador for Toyota Ireland, who are a worldwide mobility partner to the Olympic and Paralympic Games