Aoife Mahony – American Dream
Local athlete Aoife Mahony will begin the trip of a lifetime in the next few weeks when she takes up an opportunity in the USA. After spending the last year in UCC, Aoife will now travel to Florida to take up a 4 year scholarship where she will train along with studying Social Work.
Her training will take place at 6am each morning after which she will attend strength and conditioning sessions and then head off to spend a few hours in lectures. Aoife competes in a number of disciplines namely the 400m, 800m, 1500m and Cross Country running also where she will concentrate on the 5km. Her preference is the 800m.
One of her main goals over the next few years will be to qualify for an Ireland Under 23 team as her days as juvenile athlete are coming to an end. She hopes that the next few years will help her achieve this ambition.
She hopes to help her new College into the Division 2 NCAA Finals. This particular goal will be difficult to achieve but you can be certain that Aoife will do her all to achieve this goal.
One of her hopes for the future may be to come home and join An Garda Siochana on the completion of her 4 years in the USA. This is a backup plan for Aoife if things do not work on the athletics front.
Having made contact with former Irish athlete Laura Tobin, who herself is in the US in her final year studying Business in Saint Leo University Tampa Florida.
This connection helped Aoife put some plans in place where she also made contact with her coach Kent Reiber with whom she finalised arrangements and she also used Facetime to keep him abreast of her college work, training schedules and results throughout the year.
All the very best to Aoife in her time State side and having kept a close eye on her progress in the last 18 months , You can be sure Aoife will give this opportunity her very best shot…..
By
Cian Mc Gibney
01/08/2018