Orla Comerford harbours medal hopes at the Paralympic Games after a difficult few years.
Everyone follows her lead as she taps the table with her quirky pink and green nails, before reflecting on a hellish few years.
“I came off the track completely for eight months and loaded up the hamstrings for months and months in the gym,” Comerford — who has Stargardt’s disease, a degenerative condition that affects her central vision — recalls. “I just keep thinking, the time for quitting was so long ago. I have not come this far just to come this far. There is definitely a stubbornness in it. I have done all this work and it can’t be for nothing. I need it to pay off.
While a quad strain in camp also derailed her Tokyo challenge, she reflects on it all with mixed emotions.
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