Fast Twitch Athletics in 2026
/It’s been nearly six years since I last wrote on here, and a lot has changed since then. Thankfully, each year has brought more success than the last, which has, in turn, opened up new opportunities for Fast Twitch Athletics.
I had originally hoped to update the website quarterly, or at the very least at the end of each competitive season, but there always seemed to be new distractions and different priorities pulling my attention elsewhere. My Instagram page also started off with regular coaching education content and athlete insights, but over time the analytics showed that people were far more interested in individual performances, which consistently drew a much larger audience. As a result, the educational content gradually dried up and updates became few and far between, which is a shame because a lot of amazing things have happened and most of them were never highlighted or shared.
I've also been blessed with two young daughters, Ruby and Erin, who have taught me the true value of love, joy and a full night's sleep!
I'm hoping this won't be too long of a post, but I'd like to share with anyone reading what I actually do as a full-time athletics coach, along with some of the incredible breakthroughs I've been fortunate enough to be part of during 2026.
Youngstars
If you read any of my original posts, you'll remember that Youngstars Athletics started with just half a dozen children training one evening a week before growing quite successfully over its first 12 months. Coming up to six years later, Youngstars now runs three days a week across four different sessions and has had more than 320 children attend over that period.
We’ve also been lucky to have had some fantastic coaches helping out along the way; Hannah, Jack, Emma, Marianne and Caitlin, to name a few. Rumour also has it that Caitlin may be coming back from Australia in October, and the kids who remember her are very excited to see if she’ll be returning to coaching!
Youngstars still has very strong relationships with the other local clubs that train at Mary Peters Track, and a lot of the children have used Youngstars as an interim training group while waiting for places with those clubs. It really is great to see children who started at Youngstars continuing their athletics journeys with different groups and clubs, while still stopping to chat and let me know how their training and school life are going.
They’re growing up so fast!
from his first ever athletics medal to his latest. Lorcan has been with youngstars for just over 4 years now!
Lauren, bori and myself at the 2026 world indoor championships in poland.
Junior & Senior Groups
The Junior and Senior Belfast group continues to grow and, as time has passed, some of the Youngstars athletes have progressed into the older, event-specific training groups.
There have now been two Irish Schools 100m champions. Oliver Swinney became Ireland's fastest schoolboy in 2022, and Joshua Awujoola added to that achievement by winning both the 100m and 200m titles at this year's Championships.
Oliver Swinney and Lauren Roy both received scholarships to the University of Texas at San Antonio, and Lauren's career has continued to skyrocket. This year, she became the Northern Ireland record holder in the 60m (7.19s), 100m (11.23s) and 200m (22.83s), while also competing at the World University Games, World Indoor Championships and European Championships.
More recently, Anna McAuley catapulted herself to second in the Irish all-time rankings in the heptathlon, scoring 6,069 points and qualifying for her second Commonwealth Games in Glasgow later this month.
University College Dublin
I started coaching at University College Dublin (UCD) in the summer of 2023 with around 13 sprinters and hurdlers in the group. Today, we have more than 40 regular students and alumni training together, alongside two assistant coaches.
The group has been doing amazingly well. Bori Akinola has won both the Irish Indoor and Outdoor Championships, breaking the Irish 60m record with a time of 6.54s along the way, and has qualified for the European Championships in the 100m with a recent personal best of 10.19s.
Cara Murphy is the reigning Irish 400m hurdles champion and has recently run a new personal best of 58.54s. Michelle Duggan has also progressed from 58.25s in 2023 to 53.59s in 2026, earning her first Ireland senior international cap at last year's World Championships in Tokyo as part of the 4x400m relay squad.
There are many more fantastic achievements from the UCD group over the past four years, and hopefully I'll be able to keep updating you all on them in future posts.
Charlie receiving an award after running 11.85s in the 100m and being ranked 1st in Europe for the t37 category
Joshan and myself at the stratford speed gp in london
Everything else…
In January of this year, I started a part-time role as an Athletics Development Officer with Paralympics Ireland, supporting Ireland's top Para athletes. One of my UCD athletes, Charlie Byrne, who competes in the T37 classification, is now ranked first in Europe and eighth in the world over 100m following his recent personal best of 11.85s.
Over the past year, I have also taken on several athletes remotely and have been fortunate enough to coach another Commonwealth Games qualifier. My Mauritian athlete, Joshan Vencatasamy, has run wind-assisted 10.39s for 100m and 20.95s for 200m this year, qualifying for Glasgow and continuing to make excellent progress.
Looking back while writing this, I realised just how much has happened that never made it onto the website. Hopefully that's about to change. Thanks for reading, and here's to whatever comes next.
