All eyes will be on Mullingar's Martin Fagan when he becomes the first Irish athlete since John Treacy in 1992 to compete in the Olympic Games marathon in Beijing this August. And hoping to be there to cheer him on is his proud father Mickey, who was Westmeath GAA's leading dual star in the 1960s and 1970s. If Mickey Fagan thought nothing could beat the thrill of seeing his beloved Westmeath win the Leinster football championship for the first time in 2004, he was wrong. Next August, the former Lake County dual star is certain to experience similar emotions when his only son Martin runs for Ireland at the Beijing Olympics. Instead of following in his father's footsteps, which Mickey believes he was well capable of doing, Martin has carved out a magnificent athletics career which will reach its zenith this year when he becomes the first Irish athlete in 16 years to run in the marathon and only the second Westmeath man to compete in the Olympic Games. Fellow Mullingar Harriers clubman Cormac Finnerty ran in the 5,000 metres at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and gave an excellent account of himself before bowing out in the semi-final heats. Like Cormac, Martin is a past pupil of St. Mary's CBS, Mullingar and has been on an athletics scholarship in the US. Growing up beside the Mullingar Harriers track in Grange, it was inevitable that Martin would try his hand at athletics, but it wasn't until he reached the age of 17 that he took up running seriously. "He had the potential to play both hurling and football for Westmeath," Mickey claims. "He played football for Shamrocks and hurling for St. Oliver Plunkett's. He was progressing nicely in both codes, especially in the hurling, but he gave them up to concentrate on athletics. I would have been all for him playing GAA, but it wasn't what he wanted. He got more satisfaction out of the running and it was a huge achievement for him to secure a place on the Irish team for the Olympics. You can't go any higher than that." Martin has had many ups and downs during his athletics career, but never despaired and always bounced back. Since he won his first Leinster Cross Country title as a 13-year-old in Wexford he has been a model of consistency, winning several Regional and National titles. This led to him being awarded a prestigious scholarship in Providence College in 2001. There, he combined his academic studies with top-class athletics training. At the end of his five years, he graduated with a degree in Business Management and Sociology. On January 18 last, Martin booked his ticket to Beijing when he completed the Dubai Marathon in a time of 2:14:6, comfortably inside the Olympic 'A' qualifying standard of 2:15. To have achieved the qualifying time in what was his debut marathon was a magnificent testament to his dedication and determination to overcome the many obstacles that were placed in front of him. "Martin overcame a lot of obstacles to achieve what he did, and that alone, made me very proud of him," Mickey explains. "I think it's fair to say he qualified for the Olympics against all the odds. He's had all sorts of injury problems and, if that wasn't bad enough, he was refused re-entry to America before he ran the marathon in Dubai. "Martin is incredibly disciplined and extremely dedicated to his sport. He might not have the natural talent of some of his peers, but he makes up for this through dedication and hard work." As many people are aware, Mickey is a MS sufferer and has been confined to a wheelchair for the past number of years. However, he is refusing to rule out the possibility of him making it to Beijing for the biggest race of his son's life. "I don't know if I'll be able to travel, but if someone like Michael O'Leary was to offer me a flight, I'd definitely take it," jokes Mickey, who's married to Marie and has four daughters. "I'd love to be there to see him run, but we'll have to wait and see what happens. He's going to be taking his place on the starting line against the best long distance runners on the planet, including the great Haile Sellassie from Ethiopia, and you'd never know what might happen. He'll be giving himself every chance." Throughout the 1960s and the 1970s, countless Westmeath GAA fans admired the wonderful skills of Castlepollard hurler and Castletown-Finea footballer Mickey Fagan, who also represented his county with distinction in both codes. A native of Castletown-Finea, Mickey's footballing talents first came to notice when he helped St. Pat's College, Cavan (where he was a boarder) to back-to-back MacRory Cup wins in 1962 and '63. In the same years, he played minor football for Westmeath and was corner forward on the team which lost the 1963 All-Ireland final to Kerry. That defeat still haunts Mickey who describes the decision to bring the team to Dublin the night before as "crazy". "It cost us the game," he claims. "Booking a group of young lads, some of who had never spent a night away from home, into a hotel the night before an All-Ireland final was the worst thing the team management could have done. I'm convinced we would have beaten Kerry if we had travelled up on the morning of the game instead." Mickey played his early club football with The Downs before throwing in his lot with the reformed Castletown-Finea club in 1964. If Mickey had stayed with The Downs, he could have won five senior championships, but he never regretted his decision to go back and play for his home club. His finest hour in a Castletown-Finea jersey came in 1976 when he captained them to an intermediate championship final victory over their north county rivals St. Paul's. With the Castlepollard hurlers, Fagan found success easier to come by and featured in their senior championship triumphs of 1961, '65, '66 and '74. At the same time, he lined out for the county hurlers and footballers, with his senior inter-county spanning over 13 seasons. "I represented Westmeath in both codes from 1966 to '78. People often ask me how I was able to combine playing for four teams, but I managed because I enjoyed it so much. If I didn't enjoy it, I wouldn't have lasted for the length I did," he says. Mickey regards the 1967 Leinster championship win over Dublin and qualification for the 1969 National League semi-final as the highlights of his Westmeath football career. He recalls: "We were very close to making a breakthrough at that time. After beating Dublin in the 1967 championship, we suffered a narrow defeat to Meath who went on to win the All-Ireland that year. We reached the National League semi-final two years later, only to lose to a very strong Kerry team." Fagan's best performance for the Westmeath hurlers came in the 1975 All-Ireland 'B' home final against Antrim at Croke Park when he scored 0-8 from centre back. He also holds fond memories of Westmeath's defeat of Offaly in the 1967 Leinster championship, which was dubbed the 'Battle of Birr'. "We won the game and the row!" he remembers. Mickey was forced to hang up his boots for good in 1980 due to the onset on his illness. He has remained an avid follower of Westmeath GAA and took immense satisfaction from the county's recent successes in both football and hurling. "I was thrilled with the Leinster football championship win in 2004 and the All-Ireland minor and under 21 successes before that. We could have gone on to win the Sam Maguire in 2004 if we had got our tactics right against Derry in the All-Ireland quarter-final. You have to take a chance like that when it comes along. "However, I have to say it has been a pleasure to see the improvement in Westmeath's fortunes since I was playing for them. In my time, it felt like you were playing against the wind all the time. We're no longer the laughing stock," he proudly concludes. Tweet

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