Right now, her best is the 3:57.15 she ran to finish runner-up in Paris last month, one of four top-three finishes she secured across the Diamond League season.

But at the final in Zurich on Thursday, she would love to add a fifth and to edge closer to Ciara Mageean’s Irish record of 3:55.87.

Conditions are unlikely to comply, with cool weather and heavy rain forecast, but Healy comes into it after a lifetime best over 800m in London last weekend, clocking 2:00.19. Before that she clocked 3:57.95 to finish ninth at the Silesia Diamond League – her third 3:57 in a row.

“It was an OK day for me, not amazing, not too bad,” she said. “I’m a little bit disappointed with the place. I just keep running 3:57 at the minute, but the season is going really well so far.”

The 24-year-old goes into Thursday evening’s 1500m as the sixth quickest in the field this year and while Kenyan superstar Faith Kipyegon is absent, there is a formidable cast of rivals including Olympic 1500m silver medallist Jess Hull of Australia and Ethiopia’s Birke Haylom, a 3:53 performer at her peak.

Healy’s mission for next month’s World Championships will be to make the final but to get there, she will need a top-six finish in her semi-final, and this race – against the same women she’ll face in Tokyo – will be ideal prep for that final exam. Having won European Indoor gold over 3000m and after finishing a decent sixth at the World Indoors, the outdoor season has so far been a strong one. But now it’s really crunch time.

She’s the sole Irish competitor in Zurich, where Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo will square off with Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles in the climactic event of the evening, the men’s 200m, at 8.39pm Irish time, with Healy’s 1500m setting off at 6.40.

Athletics Ireland has announced a provisional team of 27 athletes for next month’s World Championships in Tokyo, spearheaded by recent indoor medallists Sarah Healy, Kate O’Connor and Mark English.

With the withdrawal last week of Rhasidat Adeleke, who cited injury as she called a halt to her season, the team has 17 individual athletes, with eight additional members selected for the women’s and mixed 4x400m relay squads along with two non-travelling reserves.

Eight of the selected athletes achieved the automatic qualification standard, while others secured their place via their world ranking. More names could be officially added in the days ahead, with eight athletes provisionally selected pending potential invites from World Athletics. Those athletes are currently outside their respective event quotas based on their world ranking but could yet earn a place if athletes ahead of them don’t accept their spots in the coming days.

The most likely of them to earn a place is Darragh McElhinney, who was 43rd on the ‘Road to Tokyo’ rankings list when the qualification deadline closed this week, just one spot outside the 42-man quota for the 5000m, having come up just shy of the automatic standard of 13:01.00 when clocking 13:02.06 in Belgium recently. Laura Nicholson is five places outside the 56-woman quota in the 1500m, as is Efrem Gidey in the 10,000m, while Sophie Becker is 56th on the rankings list over 400m, with 48 spots available.

It’s 30 years since Ireland won a medal on the track at the World Championships – Sonia O’Sullivan’s 5000m gold in 1995 – while their last medal at the event came 12 years ago, Rob Heffernan striking gold in the 50km race walk in Moscow. Ireland secured two fourth-place finishes at the last edition in Budapest through Ciara Mageean in the 1500m and Adeleke in the 400m.

Kate O’Connor will travel to Tokyo as Ireland’s top-ranked athlete, the Dundalk multi-eventer the only Irish athlete who is ranked in the top 10 in their event. She’s fifth on the world top lists for 2025 via her Irish heptathlon record of 6487 points to win the World University Games title in Germany last month, and while some big names who are set to compete in Tokyo have not yet posted a mark, she looks well placed to be the leading Irish performer and contend for a top-five finish.

Rising star Conor Kelly, who recently powered to 400m gold at the European U-20 Championships, has been selected for the mixed relay squad, alongside Olympians such as Cillín Greene, Cliodhna Manning, Sophie Becker, Jack Raftery and Rachel McCann, while Sharlene Mawdsley has secured a spot in the 400m via her world ranking and is likely to also race both the mixed and women’s 4x400m.

Irish team – World Championships, Tokyo (13-21 September)

Sarah Healy (1500m), Sophie O’Sullivan (1500m), Mark English (800m), Sarah Lavin (100m hurdles), Sharlene Mawdsley (400m, mixed 4x400m, women’s 4x400m), Cian McPhillips (800m), Cathal Doyle (1500m), Andrew Coscoran (1500m, 5000m), Kate O’Connor (heptathlon), Nicola Tuthill (hammer throw), Brian Fay (5000m), David Kenny (20km race walk), Oisin Lane (35km race walk), Eric Favors (shot put), Fionnuala McCormack (marathon), Hiko Tonosa (marathon), Peter Lynch (marathon), Sophie Becker (mixed 4x400m, women’s 4x400m), Rachel McCann (mixed 4x400m, women’s 4x400m), Jack Raftery (mixed 4x400m), Conor Kelly (mixed 4x400m), Cillín Greene (mixed 4x400m), Cliodhna Manning (women’s 4x400m), Michelle Duggan (women’s 4x400m), Jenna Breen (women’s 4x400m), Erin Friel (non-travelling reserve, women’s 4x400m), Ciaran Carthy (non-travelling reserve, mixed 4x400m).

Provisional selections (pending invitation from World Athletics)

Efrem Gidey (10,000m), Darragh McElhinney (5000m), Nick Griggs (1500m, 5000m), Laura Nicholson (1500m), Sophie Becker (400m), Jack Raftery (400m), Alex O’Neill (800m), Jenna Bromell (800m).