No need to hold back pages for Santry story

ATHLETICS: The sad thing about Santry last Sunday is it once again exposed the flaws in the structure of Irish athletics, at least at the elite end of distance running

SUCH WAS the anticipation surrounding the European Cross Country in Santry last Sunday, Frank Greally, the indefatigable editor of Irish Runner magazine, was prepared to hold the back page of this year’s bumper annual edition.

Actually, he was prepared to hold the front cover. There was real expectation that Ireland was going to win medals, maybe even gold, and thus write another memorable chapter into the history of the sport, along the lines of Limerick 1979. It would have been the perfect cover story.

But such was the pressure on distribution deadlines, Frank went to press with the Irish Runner Annualthe week before. Just as well. What happened in Santry last Sunday was exactly what athletics in Ireland didn't need.

It was that rare window of opportunity – championship on home soil, big crowd, full media exposure, etc – and instead of maximising it, the athletes more or less blew it.

Not them all, it must be said. Mark Kenneally ran well to finish eighth, and Ciara Mageean underlined her huge potential by finishing ninth in the junior event (with two years left in that category).

Still, there was no disguising the disappointment as each of the six races came and went, and so did the medals.

Mary Cullen had an off-day for sure. That happens. She may, if anything, have over-trained, but that was a consequence of her great enthusiasm for the event, not any lack of it.

Deirdre Byrne’s virtual collapse may have ultimately cost the senior women a team medal, but again that was partly the result of her putting herself in the position where medals could be won. Unfortunately, she just couldn’t maintain it. That happens too, especially on a cross country course as tough as Santry presented.

The sad thing about Santry last Sunday is it once again exposed the flaws in the structure of Irish athletics, at least at the elite end of distance running. The decision to select Martin Fagan and Alistair Cragg – though neither ran the trials, nor a single cross country race this season – was hugely questionable, and there’s no denying it backfired.

Who’s to blame? The team manager? Hardly. Anne Keenan-Buckley only has so much authority, because Irish athletics is structured that way.

In other words, it’s about time someone is appointed with real, even ruthless authority, the sort regularly wielded by Charles van Commenee, head of UK Athletics.

There is a vacancy there. The position of director of athletics has been vacant since after the Beijing Olympics, a year and a half ago. Athletics Ireland have hit various obstacles in trying to fill it, and the less said about that the better, but getting the right person in place has to be priority number one for the new year.

The other sad thing about Santry is that an up year for Irish athletics finished on a down note, at least in some events. Greally actually found himself with a few candidates for the front cover of the Irish Runner Annual– which, by the way, may be his best publication yet. In the end he settled on a nice shot of Derval O'Rourke, cradling her new puppy, Berlino.

O’Rourke wasn’t quite the standout performer of 2009. Olive Loughnane lays claim to that. O’Rourke did provide the comeback of 2009, winning European indoor bronze back in March, and finishing fourth at the World Championships in Berlin.

With an uncanny sense of timing, the Irish Runner Annual also provides the perfect insight into why so many Irish distance runners still struggle at events like last Sunday’s by publishing the all-time ranking list.

This always makes for interesting reading, and is not only a true measure of where things are, but also where they’ve been and where they’re going.

As you’d expect, some events are shaken up a lot more than others, and some events aren’t shaken up at all. What jumps out first is that the women’s events are progressing at a far greater rate than the men’s. Based on the top-20 performances on the all-time ranking list, there were 55 new additions in 2009 in the women’s events, and only 25 in the men’s events. It should be pointed out the women’s pole vault, still a relatively new event, accounts for 11 of these additions. Nevertheless, there is still a greater spread of progress on the women’s side.

What won’t come as any great surprise is the events currently devoid of progress are either long-distance, or the more technical field events.

Amazingly, there wasn’t a single addition to the top-20 in the men’s 5,000 metres, 3,000 metres steeplechase or marathon.

This is explained in part by the fall-off in the numbers of Irish athletes attending American colleges on scholarship, but also by the apparent fall-off in the dedication, commitment and work ethic necessary to succeed in these events.

Ray Flynn’s top spot in the mile and 1,500 metres goes back to 1982, Brendan Quinn’s mark in the steeplechase goes back to 1985, and John Treacy’s marathon record has been intact since 1988. They’re good records, but they’re hardly beyond progression.

David Gillick’s 44.77 seconds for the 400 metres was the only men’s national record set on the track this year, but then the real strength of Irish athletics, in recent years, has been shifting towards the sprint events. The men’s 100 and 400 metres witnessed good progress, with three additions each, and on the women’s side there were five additions in the 100 metres and three in both the 400 metres and 800 metres.

Irish women’s athletics fared quite well in 2009, bettering the men when it came to setting national records. O’Rourke improved her 100 metres hurdles mark to a truly world-class 12.67, while new marks were also set by Deirdre Ryan in the high jump (1.93m, indoors), Kelly Proper in the long jump (6.59m, indoors) and Zoe Brown in the pole vault (4.20m, indoors). Loughnane, it should be noted, also improved the 10km walk record to 43:22.

The bottom line, however, is that in many events, the depth, or rather lack of it, remains a concern. Without some big performances by a small number of individual athletes, 2009 wouldn’t have seen any great progress at all.

But then Irish athletics has nearly always been like that.

The scary thing is it could be a long time before we witness any senior distance records being broken, when we consider, say, Flynn’s junior 1,500 metres record, which has stood since 1976; or Treacy’s junior 5,000 metres record, which has stood since 1975; or the Irish junior 10,000 metre record, held by the same Frank Greally, which next summer will be 40 years intact.

Sure, the 10,000 metres is rarely run by Irish juniors these days, but maybe that’s part of the problem. Plenty of the African juniors run 10,000 metres, regularly.

I know Frank Greally would be the happiest person of all to see that record go in 2010. It would make a perfect cover story for his next Irish Runner Annual.