National Champion Cathal Doyle Eyes Paris 2024

Three time national senior 1500m champion Cathal Doyle is set to make his Olympic debut in the upcoming Paris games. The Clonliffe Harriers athlete is the last of our Irish 1500m stars to be profiled, after fellow Paris bound teammates Andrew Coscoran and Luke McCann.

Early Athletic Beginnings & DCU

Hailing from the small town of Bettystown, County Meath, Doyle’s journey into athletics began in his youth where he showed promise in schools cross country. One of his early notable achievements was in 2012 when he finished second in the Junior Boys' 3500m race at the All-Ireland Schools Championship. By 2015, he had transitioned to track effectively, winning his first national title in the Under-19 3000m at the Juvenile Track and Field Championship, and making his debut on the European stage at the Under-20 Cross Country Championships in France.

By the time 2017 arrived Cathal had begun to feature more prominently at what would become his signature distance, the 1500m race. At just 19 years old, he qualified for his Irish Senior National final. He continued his ascent, he was a 1500m finalist in the Nationals again in 2018 and represented Ireland at the European Under-23 Cross Country Championships later that year.

In 2019 Doyle began studying at Dublin City University, effectively balancing his studies with his progression as an athlete. He enjoyed success on the university circuit, winning the 5000m title on the track in Athlone in 2019, along with the university cross country 10k event in Cork in March 2020, just before the onset of COVID-19.

Progression at Portland and National Title Successes

After the disruptions caused by COVID-19, Cathal accepted an athletics scholarship to the University of Portland. Over his time there, Doyle secured several significant results from the 2021 season onwards. In the 2021 Oregon Relays, he claimed first place in the 1500m, and then replicated this success at the OSU High Performance meet later that year, where he also set a seventh-place all-time record. His performances continued to impress, including a strong showing at the Stanford Invitational in 2022, where he placed 9th in the 5000m, contributing to a second-place all-time record.

His time in America proved immensely valuable, as he made a significant breakthrough by clinching his first national 1500m title in Santry, just weeks after returning home from Portland that summer.

At the Cork City Games inJuly, Cathal set a personal best in the mile race, finishing first with a time of 3:56.35, despite competing with a fractured elbow and a broken wrist. When asked about his injury in a pre-race interview, Doyle shrugged off the injuries, casually remarking "Just tape it up, it’ll be fine."

Following his final year at Portland in 2023, he represented Ireland for the first time on the track at the Euro Team Championships, bagging silver in the 1500m event. Just over a month later he successfully defended his 1500m national title at the Morton stadium.

2024: Quest for Paris

In his first outing of the 2024 season on Irish soil, Doyle clinched his first Irish indoor title in style by winning the 1500m event in Athlone. The race was a nail-biter, with Doyle and his young rival, Nick Griggs, neck and neck in the final stretch. In a heart-stopping finish, Cathal edged ahead by a whisker, diving across the finish line just moments before Griggs to claim victory.

Despite setting a personal best of 3:36.14 at a meet in Belgium in May, Doyle fell just fourteen hundredths of a second short of the qualifying standard for the European Athletics Championships in Rome that June.

Doyle overcame this setback just weeks later. With Paris Olympic qualification in mind, he delivered a much improved performance at a meet in Finland, lowering his personal best to 3:34.09. However, this time was still shy of the Olympic standard of 3:33.50.

Going into the nationals at the end of June, it was clear that Doyle needed a very strong performance in the 1500m event to secure qualification for the Paris Olympics via quota ranking. Cathal delivered, winning his third consecutive Irish senior title with a stellar performance in Santry.

On July 2nd, the nervous wait was over, and Doyle’s Olympic qualification was confirmed. Since the nationals Doyle has kept the momentum rolling, winning both the Cork City Sports and Morton Games one mile events, capping his impressive season in the lead up to his Paris debut.

Conclusion

Cathal Doyle’s path to Paris has been marked by steady progress in the metric mile over the years, highlighting great patience and persistence on his part.

With three national titles and standout performances this season, it is clear that he’s well-positioned to build on his achievements on the grandest stage of them all.

We wish him every success.

Image: Perri Williams