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Stephen Scullion is coming off a personal-best marathon and fifth place finish at January’s Houston Marathon. With his first sub-2:12 marathon, he just fell short of the 2:11:30 qualifying time for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics but still secured a spot being that it was a Gold Label status race by World Athletics.

The Houston race marked his third marathon in four months. Last October, he represented Ireland at the World Athletics Championships Marathon in Doha. On the verge of quitting after racing in the extreme heat, his coach Stephen Haas convinced him to run again three weeks later in the Dublin Marathon, where he took second place in a then-personal best 2:12:01; he further lowered that time in Houston.

Scullion has undergone a major life transformation to get to this point in his career; just three years ago, according to news reports, he was still smoking, well over his natural running weight and admittedly getting drunk almost every weekend.

In 2019, Scullion finished 10th at the Houston Marathon, recording the fastest marathon by an Irish man since 2011, despite taking a wrong turn and being corrected by a member of the public.

Scullion now spends much of this time training in Flagstaff, AZ.