Spain’s Paul McGrath signalled a major breakthrough in February when he took the national 20km race walking title in style, beating double world champion and reigning European champion Álvaro Martín in the process.
Even more significantly in the context of the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships from 7-12 June, the rising star of Spanish race walking clocked a scintillating 1:17:55 in Zaragoza to hammer through the 1:20-barrier for the first time in his nascent career improving his previous lifetime best by a huge margin of 3:08.
- Buy your tickets for Roma 2024 here
“Honestly, that kind of performance was definitely a surprise and beyond my expectations. Of course, my training was going pretty well and I knew I was in the form of my life but I didn’t think about anything faster than high 1:18,” said McGrath, who only turned 22 earlier this year but is already third on the Spanish all-time list behind Martin (1:17:32) and Francisco Javier Fernandez (1:17:22).
Thanks to that blazing outing McGrath secured his spot on the Spanish team for both the Europeans Athletics Championships in Rome from 7-12 June and the Olympic Games in Paris - a dream come true for the Barcelona-born walker.
"The Europeans will mark my first major championships at senior level, I’m eager to compete there as I’m in love with Rome. It’s my favourite city for a number of reasons
"Firstly, the art galleries. I would spend hours and hours visiting the churches or museums as they all are full of history. Also, the gastronomy. I love pasta and as an athlete I eat it almost on a daily basis so it will be a fine opportunity to taste genuine Italian pasta which will be much better than the stuff I’m accustomed to!
"Also, for the first time in many years, the finish line for the race walking events will be located inside the stadium and that’s a huge morale booster for me," he said.
Celtic roots but a proud Spaniard
McGrath - as you can probably discern from his surname - has Irish grandparents and a Scottish father while his mother comes from Spain; literally, he will never walk alone in Rome.
"A lot of relatives will be there to support me: my parents, a Spanish uncle, four Scottish uncles and aunts. I’ll do my very best and I want my family to see me compete face-to-face with the best walkers," he said.
Having already landed the European U20 10,000m race walk and the U23 20km race walk crowns, Roma 2024 seems to be a perfect occasion to secure a hat-trick of European titles.
"That would be marvellous but I’m fully aware it will be extremely hard to accomplish as all the finest walkers will gather there," acknowledges McGrath.
McGrath realised many years ago that a Google search for ‘Paul McGrath’ did not return the expected results.
"When I was small my father used to sing me the song the Irish supporters dedicated to Paul McGrath when he played for Ireland; then a teacher also told me there had been a famous Irish footballer with that name playing for Aston Villa and Manchester United.
"I began to find out more about him and soon understood he was a big idol so it’s an honour for me to share name with him but t’s going to be hard work to unseat him in terms of Google!" he said.
Despite being born in Barcelona, his father gave him a British name. "He grew up in Glasgow and moved to Barcelona in 1995 to get married; when I was born he wanted to give me a British name but my mother thought most of the potential names were going to be mispronounced by her family and finally Paul became a fine and reasonable point of agreement."
Performing when it really counts
McGrath has a proven ability to peak when it really matters. Not only did he win the European U20 title in 2021 followed by the European U23 title in 2023, he did so with lifetime best performances in both championships, a habit he would surely like to continue in Rome in June.
"That credit to my coach Alejandro Aragoneses - he always knows how to get the major championships at my highest level of the season," said McGrath, who also won a bronze medal in the World Athletics U20 Championships in 2021.
On a curious comparative note, McGrath holds no fewer than three major age-group medals and speaks as many languages.
"When I was a kid my father used to talk to me in English, my mother in Spanish and most of my classes at school were conducted in Catalan. I still remember mixing words from the three languages, it was a bit confusing sometimes but now I definitely consider it an advantage to be able to speak several languages," he said.
McGrath can also boast of having valuable familiar help when he faces his longest training sessions.
"I need to drink often during a 25km training session so either my father, one of my two sisters or my uncle accompany me riding a bike to provide me some water every four kilometres or so and conversation too. I feel privileged to have a family that is so attentive to my training," said McGrath, although he does note there is one minor impediment to securing familial help.
"My father is a die-hard Celtic fan so we sometimes have to adjust my training schedule so that he doesn’t miss the match on television."
When winning the Spanish 20km race walk title earlier this year, McGrath covered the second 10km in an astonishing 37:37 which averages a frantic pace of 3:45 per kilometre.
As his Instagram motto says, why run if you can walk fast?
Emeterio Valiente for European Athletics