The_Guardian_-_2016-12-29

Enter Cathal Dennehy’s description of Phil Healy’s run in the Irish University Athletics Association
Championships 4x400m in April this year. A touch more provincial than the Rumble in the Jungle or
the 1998 World Cup quarter-final, then, but no less impressive, as University College Cork’s Healy
started the final 400m lap in fifth place, 70-80 metres behind the leader (nobody can be sure as she is
so far back, she is out of shot). Somehow, “from the depths of hell”, as Dennehy so brilliantly
describes it, Healy storms through the field, pipping University College Dublin’s Michelle Finn –
who herself represented Ireland at the World Championships in 2015 and in this year’s Olympic
Games – right on the line, before collapsing into a quite outstanding faceplant. Perhaps that’s where
Shaunae Miller got her inspiration from.
Healy is not even a 400m runner, and 20 minutes previously had competed in a 200m race. “I was
putting down my gear and one of the girls came over and asked would I have any interest in running
the 4x400m relay,” Healy revealed afterwards. “I said, ‘Throw me into the last leg and I’ll see what I
can do.’ It didn’t feel like I was dying with lactic, I reckon it was the adrenaline and the momentum. I
had the burn but didn’t feel it but I crossed the line and fell.”
Unquestionably, it is Healy who is the hero of the hour. But with all the media attention that followed,
including an interview with the Washington Post, is she unsung? Apart from the 200 or so people at
Dublin’s Morton Stadium that day, her moment has been relived more than three million times on
YouTube through the eyes of Dennehy – by his own admission, only a part-time commentator – who
started the home straight with a classic one-liner before descending into glorious delirium.
“Sometimes these things come to you – not that I have too much experience doing these things – but
sometimes you get that flash of inspiration,” Dennehy told the excellent podcast The Racket. “I don’t
know if it was the red singlet coming from so far behind, but something flashed up to say ‘coming
from the depths of hell’.” MB
2) Leonardo Mayer
If you ever taught a bear how to play tennis, educating it in the intricacies of the game and introducing
it to the concept of tactics, it would probably play like Juan Martín del Potro. The sport is so much
richer for the explosive Argentinian’s return, and he has provided us with enough entertainment in the
past six months to suggest that he will challenge for his first grand slam title since the 2009 US Open,
provided he maintains his fitness when the new season begins in January. Just ask Stan Wawrinka. If
you’re still not convinced, ask Novak Djokovic. Then Andy Murray. Or Marin Cilic.
There was nowhere left to hide for Cilic as Del Potro cranked up the venomous power of his
groundstrokes during their epic singles rubber in last month’s Davis Cup final. Croatia were within
touching distance of a 3-1 victory when Cilic led by two sets, but he might as well have replaced his
racquet with the white flag of surrender by the end of the match, so futile was the task of trying to
contain a rampaging Del Potro. Tennis’s fifth Beatle roared back to win in five sets, leaving it to
Federico Delbonis to seal Argentina’s first ever Davis Cup title in the final match of the tie, which he
duly did with a comprehensive win over Ivo Karlovic.
Juan Martín del Potro inspires Argentina to