New-style blazers cut from right cloth

On Athletics:Athletics Ireland staged a press conference yesterday to announce the team for the World Championships, starting in Osaka in two weeks' time.

It was a timely opportunity for journalists to chat with some of those making the long trip, even if there were more officials on hand than athletes.

Sport has a history of giving precedence to the "blazers", but yesterday the presence of only two athletes was understandable (and thanks to Joanne Cuddihy and David Campbell for showing up) given many of them were out of the country and Derval O'Rourke is still competing. We assumed it wasn't for fear of talking to us.

So a team of 15 - seven men and eight women, with Michelle Carey a late addition in the 400-metre hurdles - will travel. The average age is under 25. And for the likes of Paul Hession, David Gillick, Alistair Cragg and, of course, O'Rourke making finals is a realistic ambition.

But it's the back-room team, the so-called blazers, that really makes this Irish team stand out from anything previous. It's not long since Irish athletes qualifying for major games were given plane tickets and told, "See you there." And if they failed to deliver in competition that was their hard luck; blame the lack of facilities!

Well, times are changing. In introducing the team, Brendan Hackett, the chief executive of Athletics Ireland, spoke eloquently of recent sweeping changes in the sport and of unprecedented support for athletes. Hackett is halfway through his three-year term and no one can doubt his role in instigating those changes. He hasn't been afraid to stand up to the old guard who, as Bob Dylan might say, were standing in the doorways, blocking up the halls.

Then there is Patsy McGonagle, the team manager. McGonagle has a lifelong passion for sport, particularly Gaelic football, and Athletics Ireland are lucky to have him. His strength is his experience, and Hackett's decision to appoint him for three years, up to and including the Beijing Olympics, is proving enlightened.

McGonagle can readily recall the bad old days of Irish athletics, particularly the in-house bickering and nonsensical power struggle with the Olympic Council of Ireland in the context of the Sydney Olympics in 2000. As team manager for those games he was left burnt by the experience, but instead of giving up, he embraced the road towards change and the sport can only be better for his continued involvement.

The most recent addition to Athletics Ireland is Max Jones, who four months ago took up the role of Ireland team coach. Jones was one of the main faces of British athletics for several decades, their high-performance manager from 1997 to 2004, and head coach at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics. He was headhunted by Hackett.

Jones is now a veteran of six Olympics and every edition of the World Championships since their inauguration in 1983. He's a devout realist and yesterday it was clear he was brought in to help eliminate the last of the claptrap.

"I actually came into the job with a fairly open mind," he said. "The last thing I wanted to do was apply an English solution to an Irish problem. So the summer has really been about getting to know the system, and meeting the athletes. And I think I'm at the point now where I've got a handle on where Irish athletics is at.

"The main thing was giving the whole sport more structure. There were too many athletes doing their own thing. I always recall Steve Backley (Britain's champion javelin thrower) saying the most important thing was to surround yourself with good people. It's the role of the federation to provide that, and surround the athlete with that ring of confidence. There were some examples where it was happening, but in more cases it wasn't in place."

Irish ambitions for Osaka, he said, should be kept in check. It's a young team and most will be contenders for London 2012, which Jones insists will be the greatest Olympics of our lifetimes.

"These are 15 very good athletes going to Osaka, but there is still some way to go. I still don't think Ireland is punching its weight at the moment. The field events are very, very weak. In fact that's too strong a word. We have to get good coaches in there to help raise the profile of those events. But overall, the plan is to get stronger, year on year. If we can double the number of good coaches in Ireland then I think we can double the number of good athletes.

"So being honest, I would have to say a medal is probably beyond this team. I hope I'm told in September that I was wrong on that. But we have to be realistic. We hope to get some athletes into finals, and a fair few into semi-finals. But this is a team for the future. It will be a learning curve."

Jones has based himself in Portmarnock, and despite his relatively short period in the job has been impressed by what he's seen.

"Oh, I see talent out walking on the streets," he added - presumably referring to the athletic sort.

"I've seen it on the hurling and Gaelic football field as well. I don't understand those games, but there's talent there. If you include Northern Ireland athletes then there's definitely enough talent to make a big impact on European athletics, and on the world stage.

"The problem is every year athletics is getting more competitive. You'll have 210 countries competing in Osaka. There is no other sport with that participation level. And each year the poorer countries, or developing countries, are producing more athletes. Go back 20 years and they weren't there. The Chinese are really improving as well, and therefore Ireland has to be more competitive."

With men of this calibre in the blazer parade, Irish athletics is at last keeping up with that pace.