Future is bright for Sligo Kid

INSPIRATION Future is bright for Sligo kid

By Alana Fearon Irish Runner Editor

While most of us would have been content with a gold medal or a bag of Tayto’s after the annual school sports day egg and spoon race, little Grace Foley set her sights on world glory. The eight-year-old from Sligo was crowned joint third in the ‘World’s Fastest Kid’ race at the acclaimed Millrose Games in New York on January 29. It took the little schoolgirl just 9.01 seconds to run the 55m to the finish line and onto the podium, as her beaming parents and proud twin brother watched on from the stands.

Speaking exclusively to Irish Runner magazine from cloud 9, Grace revealed she was “a bit nervous and a bit happy at the same time”, and was delighted with the “little bag of goodies” she got to take home. Under the tutelage of well-known Sligo athletics coach Dermot

McDermott, and despite being so young, Grace tore up the track to cement her name as one to watch on the racing stage. But her success is a little less surprising when you take a look at her family tree. Grace’s mum is Heather Wilson, a former full-time triathlete and cyclist who represented Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth Games in 2006, won the Irish Elite Senior Road Racing Championships in 2009, and was a member of the Irish cycling team which competed at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in 2010.

Grace Foley after winning third place

Grace's Family

It was that year that Heather and Grace’s dad Desi met, on a bike race fittingly, and they married a year later. Desi also had a background in athletics and was a keen cyclist, so it was a match made in sporting heaven. By the time the twins, Grace and Oliver, came along in 2013, Desi and Heather had already started running more because they “found it more time efficient”. And so fitness became a family affair for the Foleys, and a part of Grace’s life from day one. Desi said: “Running was our thing after Heather had the kids. She got back into triathlons in 2014 when the kids were young, so they’ve known nothing else than seeing us race. They were always active and Heather always had them out climbing mountains or on their bikes. We were all round the country with the kids in the buggy.” In 2017, the family moved from Heather’s native Northern Ireland back to Desi’s native Sligo, and Desi reconnected with his childhood friend and wellknown athletics coach, Dermot McDermott.

He revealed: “As the twins got older, they started doing athletics and cycling. Dermot took them two or three years ago when they were doing the usual athletics. Under-9 is the youngest age group in terms of Athletics Ireland so it was only really last year that they got into events. Grace did the local Sligo competition and won, then she went to the Connaught’s, and she won that. And then she went to the All-Ireland's, and she won that at the 300 meters. So it was great.”

Pure Determination

But did Desi and Heather realise how special a talent their daughter actually has? Dad Desi told us: “I knew she was good. What actually amazes me about Grace is, yes she has a great talent physically in terms of her ability, but she has one serious head on her for an eight-year-old. She’s very calm, very determined. She’s a bit of a mix of both of us. Heather would have got quite nervous and anxious about racing whereas I’d be a bit more laid back. But on the other hand, Heather would be awfully stubborn and determined so Grace has Heather in her where she's extremely determined and stubborn to

"She has great talent physically in terms of her ability, but she has one serious head on her for an eight-year old."

get everything out and give it her best, but she seems to have got an element of composure and calmness coming from me.”

The World's Fastest Kid

It was perhaps this competitive streak that landed Grace her ticket to America in January. Desi revealed: “Dermot always thought Grace was something different, and he was the link to America. The Melrose Games is an annual indoor event which is more known for the Senior Indoor World Tour, but the race director is Ray Flynn and he’s Irish. So because of that Irish connection, this Fastest Kid in the World race has always been part of the program. With him being the race director, he keeps a lane of the eight lanes for an Irish child to come over, and he trusts Dermot to pick the best Irish boy and girl to come over every year.” Cian Donnelly from Tuam in Co Galway ran the boys race, also finishing third with an impressive time of 9.23 seconds. “Dermot was working with the kids as much as he could over the last couple of months to prep them for the race. I always felt Grace was better at the kind of 300-meter distance and that maybe as she would get older, she'd be kind of like a 1,500 or 3,000 meter runner. But Dermot keeps telling me she's a sprinter. “Grace is very lean, she’s very slight and very athletic looking and I'm looking thinking surely she's more of an endurance runner but she got joint third in New York over the 55m and relative to the kids around her, she was tiny. So in a sprint race, she did extremely well. But as I said, it was her composure as well.”

Grace's Dreams

Speaking to Irish Runner from her kitchen in Co Sligo, little Grace has already decided she wants to be a runner when she grows up. And with so much potential, she is surely set for stardom. But Desi and Heather are taking a more measured approach to her future. The proud dad explained: “As much as I’m like Grace really is something in terms of her potential, and she could be the next whatever, at the same time I’ve seen people with that life and we just hope she can grow up with the balance of maybe doing a bit of both. But we’ll see. “People have even been talking about a scholarship for college but there’d be a selfish part of us that we’d hate to see her across the Atlantic. But aside from that, it doesn't suit everyone. So we're just very mindful that it's a lovely thing to be offered a scholarship but we would just be sort of cautious. “And anyway, there are world-class female triathletes like Vicky Holland and Jessica Learmonth, and they’re based out of Leeds. It's more about the infrastructure you have around you and often the training group that you have around you.”

Image on right: Grace Foley with Sonia O'Sullivan.