IN THE afterglow of Sonia O'Sullivan's momentous week, it may seem like an inopportune time to ask the question, but in fact there is no better time. Where is the next athletics medal coming from? How can we look forward to Athens in 2004 with any optimism?
If O'Sullivan is fit and healthy, and still carries the desire to compete, she will almost certainly travel there as Ireland's best medal hope, but by then she will be 34 with incalculable miles on the clock. By 2004 it will be grossly unfair of us to expect anything more of her.
With Catherina McKiernan's continuing injury problems and the prospect of a hellish marathon through the polluted air and withering heat of an Athens afternoon, it is highly unlikely that she will compete in 2004; Sydney was her chance and injury wrecked it. So, who else is there? Where, even, is there potential for us to wish upon? We saw none here.
For Ireland's track and field team, these Games have been a disappointment with just a handful of honourable exceptions: the 4x100m team ran brilliantly and broke the Irish record, Peter Coghlan ran a season's best in the 110m hurdles, Gillian O'Sullivan came 10th in the 20km walk, Sarah Reilly made it to the second round of the 100m, and Terry McHugh threw the javelin far enough to have made the last three Olympic finals - but not this one. As for the rest,
obliteration.
At past Games we have taken comfort in the number of personal bests achieved, but O'Sullivan is the only athlete to have done that here. To some degree, the insistence of the Irish Olympic Committee (IOC) that only athletes with the A qualifying standard would be sent has contributed to the absence of personal bests. For many of the Irish team, reaching the A standard was an enormous strain and having peaked to achieve it they were incapable of peaking again. But you can see the IOC's argument: without the A standard, what criteria have you got?
It is only two years since the Irish team enjoyed a successful European championships, but the clear implication of these Games is that European championships are our level now. Mark Carroll, our most talented male runner, took a bronze in Budapest two years ago but at his distances of 5km and 10km he cannot match the Africans on the world stage. Not to have made the 5,000m final here represents underachievement, but making the top 10 in the final would have been the limit of expectations.
Where do we go from here? There is always a case for more funding but it is not nearly as big a problem as it used to be. For Atlanta £150,000 was spent on preparing the entire Olympic team across all sports; for these Games £300,000 was spent on the track and field team alone. With the superb NCTC in Limerick and a £5m indoor arena in the pipeline, facilities are improving but we remain a back marker in world terms.
Most important now is having the right structures. The merger of the two athletics bodies into the AAI is a start, but the fledgling organisation is far from a harmonious unit yet. The recommendations of the Price Waterhouse Commission calling for a serious reformation of coaching structures has yet to be implemented. That would be a start.
If there is another O'Sullivan out there, are we doing enough to find and nurture her? Now is the time to face that question.
DENIS WALSH
