Born to run – Westport twins dreaming the Olympic dream

There’s very few 13-year-olds that have won as much as Holly and Freya Renton.

Just started second year in secondary school, these Westport twins have taken the local and national athletics scene by storm.

Indeed, when it comes to middle-distance and cross-country, the Rentons are pound-for-pound among the best female athletes in the country.

They won their first All-Ireland at the age of nine, winning double gold All-Ireland medals in the 500-metre and long jump events at the national finals in Tullamore.

Since then, they’ve struggled to find room for all the gold, silver and bronze that adorns their mantle.

“They always loved running. Even as kids, I actually think they went from crawling to running,” their mother Phillipa tells The Mayo News.

Bedtime at the Rentons must have been fun back in the day?

“We used to just run and run around the sofa and our Dad would try catch us and we’d run and run and run,” chimes Holly.

_{Holly and Freya Renton in their Westport AC gear after winning gold and bronze in the All-Ireland U-15 Cross Country Championships}

It wasn’t far from the tree these two golden apples fell.

Their mother ran all her life, but not competitively.

Phillipa loved the half marathons and 10ks, while her husband Bryan was more into 800 metres and 5ks.

“I loved it, but he loved the competitive side of it. So maybe that’s where they got it from,” she says.

Phillipa, a Meath woman, and Bryan, a Scouser with an Irish mother, fell in love at the athletic club.

Some years later, Phillipa and Bryan spent a few sunny days cycling around Clew Bay.

After falling in love with each other, Phillipa and her Scouse beau fell in love with the West of Ireland and soon made their home in Westport.

They brought the love of athletics with them, so by the time their daughters were eight, Holly and Freya Renton had graduated from laps of the sofa to laps of Westport AC’s gravel athletics track.

Within a year, they were sweeping all before them at county, provincial and All-Ireland level.

They were only nine when they won their first All-Ireland in Dunboyne. 

They were competing against eleven-year-olds on the day, so their mother warned them not to get too ahead of themselves.

How wrong she was.

“I said, ‘Listen, there are 180 girls’ and I said ‘Don’t worry, you’ve done well. Just enjoy it, you did great to get here. Don’t be sad if you don’t do that well.’ I remember she [Freya] looked at me and she said, ‘Do you think I’m not going to win it?’” Phillipa recalls.

The words of The Saw Doctors meant very little to Holly and Freya Renton - ‘To Win Just Once’ would never be enough.

“I think we were like surprised, because we were only nine. Then we just decided we wanted to do it again and again and again,” says Freya.

Though driven and determined enough individually, there’s no one they rather beat more than themselves.

“I have Holly always. She is always on my tail trying to push me on,” says Freya, who’s outrun her sister by a few seconds on more than a few occasions.

“I just want to beat Freya rather than get first. We’re very competitive against each other,” adds Holly with understated defiance.

Presently, Freya and Holly are ploughing their furrow of greatness on a rugged gravel ring that Westport AC want to transform into a gleaming tartan surface.

They’d only love to train on it, as it would save them a good few trips to Claremorris.

But there’s just one disadvantage.

“There’s puddles on the inside of the track and Freya doesn’t care, she steps right into it, splashes me and I have to run on the outside!” laughs Holly.

After a race, where one normally pips the other by a few seconds, they’ll intentionally spend an hour or two apart.

But the rivalry never descends into animosity, thankfully.

“They’re so close, ridiculously close. They’ll be back best friends again after maybe an hour or so,” says Phillipa.

“I remember one time I beat Freya and I think she had like an ankle injury or something and she was really annoyed at me after because I got first. I left her alone for a bit and then she was fine,” adds Holly.

Oh, and they do swimming too. And Gaelic football – they’re not bad at that either.

At this point, even their father is ‘dreading’ the day the two little tearaways he chased around the sofa will be too quick for him.

“I think that’s what’s motivating him to keep fit so that they won’t catch him yet. He wants to be a lot older before they pass him out,” smiles Phillipa.

But these girls have bigger ambitions than leaving their Dad red-faced and out of breath.

What’s their biggest ambition?

“Hopefully like run internationally in the Olympics,” says Freya, before turning to Holly, “What about you?

“I’d like to be in the Olympics with Freya.”

Whether it’s chasing each other around the sofa or around an athletics track, Holly and Freya Renton will always be close, regardless of who comes first or second.