A new golden age of athletics

ATHLETICS: First Europe, now comes the world. It's going to be hard to stop these Irish conquistadors. Winning a European Indoor title is one small step towards total domination, but what happened in Madrid this weekend marks one giant leap for David Gillick and Alistair Cragg. Ian O'Riordan reports from Madrid

They'll head home later today with the jingle-jangle of gold medals, still in celebratory mood and already planning their next mission. There's a World Championships in Helsinki next August with far more precious metal on offer, and that could be only the beginning of another golden era for Irish athletics.

For a while on Saturday, though, neither Gillick nor Cragg really cared what happens next. They'll always have the memories of their first major title, and the slightly more vague memories of a great night. Together they spoiled Spain's two main gold medal hopes, and with that transferred the best fiesta of the weekend to an Irish bar in the heart of Madrid.

Only three other Irish men have won European Indoor titles: Noel Carroll, Eamonn Coghlan and Mark Carroll. No Irish man has yet won a European outdoor title, and for Gillick and Cragg that event in Gothenburg next year can't come around quick enough.

For Cragg, though, there is a far more immediate assignment at the World Cross Country in France in two weeks. Saturday's 3,000 metres victory was practically ideal preparation for the 4km short-course race, and even the presence of the ruling east Africans won't lesson his ambition of claiming another title.

Gillick's attention now turns from Madrid to Helsinki, where the new European Indoor 400-metre champion will bring his new-found fame on to the world stage for the first time. That too means taking on the American ruling class, but he hardly needs reminding that their Olympic champion is a skinny-looking white kid just like himself.

Some sight it was on Saturday, though, with Gillick standing aloft the medal podium just as Cragg went on his victory lap. Cragg was back inside the arena yesterday evening for his medal ceremony, and it seemed a little unfair to be asking him straight afterwards if he could win another one at the World Cross Country.

"Well, I think I can," he said with his typically cool composure. "And that's my goal. I wouldn't be going there if I didn't think it. I went there last year after running some good times indoors and didn't have a great race. But I'm different runner now, and am running more off strength."

So he'll head back to his US base at Arkansas for some rest and recuperation, though he's clearly not intent on resting at all on his laurels: "Hopefully all the excitement of this weekend won't get the better of me. I know I'm not going to get any better in the next two weeks, but I'll get sharp and focused again and try to come back for another good one.

"I've always been a little more motivated about indoor running than cross country, because you have the clock to tell you how good you are. But I'm definitely geared up for that 4km race. I still think a medal at the World Cross Country is one of the hardest ones to get in distance running. And I know European indoor running does not equal World Cross Country. The Africans that specialise in 4km cross country aren't like Reyes Estevez."

Estevez was the man who felt the full brunt of Cragg's 3,000 metre victory, and the Spaniard's ambition of coming back to win the 1,500 metres last night ended in similar fashion with another bronze medal behind Ukraine's Ivan Heshko.

After the most competitive European indoor event in a while Ireland ended up fourth on the gold medal count - safe in the knowledge that both were squeaky clean.

In fact, Gillick and Cragg represent all that's still good about athletics, that talent when combined with hard, hard work can take you anywhere. Gillick's moment of victory in the 400 metres should prove particularly inspiring to the next generation.

"Crossing that line with the arms raised and going on a lap of honour, that's something you dream about as a kid," he admitted. "You really do. So you'd live for a moment like that again. And I suppose that's my ambition now. That's the motivation."

The confidence of both performances was particularly breathtaking. Cragg had watched Gillick's victory from his warm-up area and realised this was an athlete he could straight away relate to: "You could see his confidence. And that's all it takes. I know other Irish athletes aren't that far off. I'm no professor of the sport, but you need to have that confidence to compete."

Like Gillick, that sort of confidence can only start to rub off. Just like our old school athletes really.