February Athlete of the Month: Charlie O’Donovan

Club: University of Villanova and Leevale AC

Charlie O’Donovan (University of Villanova and Leevale) received the Athlete of the Month Award for February. Running at the David Hemery Invitational indoor meet at Boston University, Charlie dipped under the magical four-minute barrier to win the one mile race. His time of 3.58.95 means Charlie now joins an illustrious list of Irish sub-four-minute milers.

As anyone who viewed the video of the race, the look on Charlie’s face when he crossed the line at the Boston meeting said it all, as he described: “The race went very well, I was in the third heat and although the second heat was supposed to be faster, my race was ideal as I was near the front all the way and only took the lead with about 80 metres to go. I had run 4:02 two weeks before, so to improve four seconds was great.”

Charlie became the 42nd athlete from Villanova to break the four minutes, joining such illustrious names as Ronnie Delany and Eamonn Coghlan plus fellow Corkmen John Hartnett, Marcus O’Sullivan and Ken Nason. Marcus is now Charlie’s coach at Villanova while Ken looked after him before his move to the famed Pennsylvania university.