Early in his schoolboy days at Blackrock College someone identified Luke McCann as having the potential to make it in rugby. Wishful thinking perhaps, because it wasn’t long before realising they were mistaken.
McCann could run alright, get the ball too, only there was no hiding his inability to tackle.
“Back then you had to play rugby, I was always on the D team, or E team,” says McCann. “Then I did my first cross-country race, the rugby coach saw me, finishing second, passing three others on the home straight, and bumped me right up to the B team, thinking I’d be the speedy little winger.
“I could get the ball, I couldn’t tackle anyone. I’d a strong kick though.”
So that was that. McCann kept running cross-country, mostly as a hobby, before graduating with the Blackrock class of 2016. He started in UCD that September with a best well outside four minutes – for 1,500m that is, not the mile – his potential to make in distance-running still slow to shine.
Fast forward to Sunday and, aged 23, McCann won his first Irish senior title in utterly convincing style – his gun-to-tape victory at the Sport Ireland Indoor Arena coming in 3:45.14.
Earlier in the month in New York he improved his mile best to 3:53.87, moving him to seventh on the Irish all-time list, before running 2:17.40 over 1,000m – the fastest ever time by any Irish runner, indoors or out.
Last summer McCann also clocked 3:36.81 for 1,500m, in Montreuil in France, and along with Andrew Coscoran, the Olympic semi-finalist in Tokyo, will lead the Irish charge in the event at next month’s World Indoor Championships in Belgrade.
Coached by his father Clarke, a champion swimmer and lifesaver in his prime, McCann is adamant he’s not going to make up the numbers; this time last year at the European Indoors in Torun, Poland, McCann found himself in the same heat as Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who ended up winning the 1,500m/5,000m double, and afterwards saw the chance to bounce some thoughts off the young Norwegian, two years his junior.
Mindset thing
“I think it’s a mindset thing. After that heat with Jakob, in the call room, he was sitting a metre opposite from me, and I thought when will I next get the chance for just me and him to have a chat?
“So I sparked up a bit of conversation, asked him how he made it look so easy? And he just looked at me and said ‘because it is easy’. That’s the way I have to go into certain competitions, just don’t show any respect, you’ve qualified for these championships just like they have, and you have to believe you have that spot just as much as they do.
“There’s no point in going over if you’re not thinking you can make the final. I just came third in a world-class meeting in America, why can’t I come third in a world-class final over in Belgrade? I wouldn’t be in this sport if I wasn’t here to complete, no one should really.”
He has his Masters in Mechanical Engineering to finish in UCD, after the indoors, then all thoughts shift to improving again.
“Oh yeah, I’m obsessed, and being involved in the training, I’m always doing a bit of research, looking at what others are doing, how we can adapt that to our training. I need to run 3:34, 3:33, to make finals. The standards have moved on, so that’s the next step.”
