I've been more robust this year & learned how to pull out big performances

SHANAHAN HAPPY UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

-  MICHAEL SCULLY

LOUISE SHANAHAN is into the appliance of science but will also be happy if World championships success comes from relying on her gut instinct instead.

Shanahan, 25, is completing her quantum biophysics studies in Cambridge University - and faces the daunting prospect of having her thesis done by December.

The 800m hopeful who held the national record until Ciara Mageean took it back in May-hopes to put a dent in her college work while preparing for the Worlds at Ireland's Samorin camp in Slovakia, two hours from where the championships begin on Saturday in Budapest.

She laughed "I've a lot of work to do over the next couple of months.

If the Cork woman is not in her running gear then she can seen wearing a white lab coat in the university environs.

Shanahan explained: "I take tiny diamonds, about 50 nanometres in diameter, so essentially they look like little specks of dirt,".