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The Jerries

Meet Ireland's Olympic team: Sara Treacy

The Meath native is set to experience the Games for the first time in Brazil.

Sara Treacy and Kerry O'Flaherty Treacy (left) alongside team-mate Kerry O'Flaherty. Karel Delvoije / INPHO Karel Delvoije / INPHO / INPHO

Event: 3,000m steeplechase

Who is she? 27-year-old runner Sara Treacy is one of three athletes representing Ireland in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase along with Kerry O’Flatherty and Michelle Finn.

Where’s she from? From Moynalvey, County Meath, Treacy is a member of Dunboyne AC but runs in the colours of Birchfield Harriers as she is based in Birmingham, where she studied medicine before getting a job at Alexandra Hospital in Redditch.

Olympic CV: Next month’s Olympic Games in Rio will be Treacy’s first, although she has competed in both the World Championships and the European Championships in the past 18 months.

Road to Rio: Along with team-mates and friends O’Flaherty (9:42.61) and Finn (9:43.34), Treacy (9:44.15) did enough at the Letterkenny AC International meeting a year ago by running inside the qualifying time of 9:45.00

When does she start? Treacy’s Rio 2016 begins on Saturday, 13 July.

Where can I follow her? You can find her on Twitter @sara_treacy.

What she says: “It’s the pinnacle of my sport and something I’ve wanted to do since I joined an athletic club 20 years ago!” she recently told Miriam O’Callaghan.

“I’d love to make the final. That’s what I want to achieve, so I’ve got to do my best and make some improvements but maybe there’s a place in the final for me.”

Medal chances? As Sara says herself, the aim is to navigate her way to the final and that would be massive achievement in itself.

Two out of five on our Jerry Kiernan scale…

download (1)And here’s something you probably didn’t know… Treacy is a qualified doctor who has taken a year's sabbatical away from her career to focus on the Olympic dream.

She also comes from a family of athletes as her parents Liam and Siobhan and siblings Daniel and Fodhla are all accomplished runners.

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