Not a gala year, but more parties are promised

ATLHETICS:IT'S ONE thing to make a grand entrance. It's another thing entirely to get out alive. Jim Morrison said that – after playing New Haven, in 1967. But he could have been talking about Old San Juan, or indeed the World Athletics Gala, in Monte-Carlo, which takes place this evening at the magnificent Salle des Etoiles.

Not to be confused with the National Athletics Gala – which also takes place this evening, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, in Santry – the World Athletics Gala is essentially the IAAF end-of-year party, and believe me, it is, if not decadent and depraved, certainly indulgence of the highest order.

No prizes for guessing which gala I get invited to, although I did make it to Monte-Carlo once, 10 years ago. Once was, in fact, enough – it was 2001, not long after 9/11, and many Americans were still fearful of flying, which left the IAAF with seats to fill. So I was faxed an invitation, including a first-class plane ticket to Nice, and complementary suite at the famous Loews Hotel.

With that I dusted down my dad’s old tuxedo, brushed up on my broken French,

and did indeed make a grand entrance, or so I’m told. Truth is, the first and last thing I remember about the night was greeting Ian Stewart, the former British distance runner, after whom I happen to be named. Ian was ordering large rounds of gin and tonics, and appeared to need help; by the end of the night I was the one who needed it, having lost all equilibrium, like a man wearing one cufflink.

These days, I’m told, the World Athletics Gala is a more sober affair, and doubles as the IAAF end-of-year council meeting. Indeed the big announcement made in Monte-Carlo yesterday was the awarding of the 2017 World Championships to London, and not, thankfully, Doha (there’s plenty of time to reflect on that decision over the next six years).

The climax this evening is the awarding of the 2011 Athlete of the Year – both man and woman (worth a tidy $100,000 each). It wasn’t a particularly spectacular year for the sport, although there are some worthy nominations for the big prize, especially among the women.

The finalists are Sally Pearson, the Australian sprint hurdler who ran that brilliant 12.28 to win the World title in Daegu; Valerie Adams from New Zealand, unbeaten all year in the shot put; and Vivian Cheruiyot from Kenya, who is my pick – she won the World Cross Country and had an amazing 5,000-10,000m double in Daegu.

Cheruiyot, believe it or not, is also an honorary life member of the Gneeveguilla athletic club in Castleisland.

The men’s finalists are David Rudisha, Kenya’s awesome 800m runner, who won the top prize last year, and Jamaica’s sprint team-mates Yohan Blake and Usain Bolt. This is a closer call, although if we assume the only reason Blake won the 100m in Daegu is because Bolt false-started, and they’re otherwise on a par, my vote goes to Bolt.

Meanwhile, back at Santry, the National Athletics Gala will also celebrate a not-particularly spectacular year for the sport, although one which at least offers great hope. Indeed, for a while it seemed the highlight of our athletics year might have happened at the end of last year, or last December, when, at the European Cross Country in the Algarve, the men’s Under-23 team surprised a lot of people and possibly themselves by winning the gold medal.

In the end such was the range of promising performances over the year that Athletics Ireland has split their existing junior award category into three: Emerging, Junior and Under-23 Athlete of the Year. The standout performance of that lot was surely Kate Veale winning Ireland’s first gold at the World Youth Championships in Lille in July. At just 17, Veale delivered a commanding performance in the 5km walk: her time of 21 minutes, 45.59 seconds was the fourth fastest on the Irish senior all-time list, and leaves her a certainty for the Emerging Athlete award.

By the end of the summer Irish underage athletes had won nine medals, between the European Youth Olympics, European Under-23 and junior championships and the World Youth Championships. Fittingly, they were all honoured at the National Championships in Santry, and taking a bow were Veale, plus Ciara Mageean, Brian Gregan, Karl Griffin, Ruairi Finnegan, Ben Kiely, Siofra Cleirigh Buttner, Sarah Lavin and Maegan Kiely.

Together they brought to 21 the number of medals Irish athletes have won in international competition over the last three years – an impressive tally for any country. Mageean’s silver in the European junior 1,500m means she’s likely to claim the junior award, while Gregan’s silver in the European Under-23 400m leaves him the standout in that category.

Nominated for the main prize of Track and Field Athlete of 2011 are Derval O’Rourke, Deirdre Ryan, Ciarán Ó Lionaird and Alistair Cragg. O’Rourke, by her standards, had a mixed year, and although she ran with typical verve to finish fourth at the European Indoors in Paris, the calf injury which forced her to scratch from the 100m hurdles semi-final in Daegu was the ultimate downer.

Ó Lionaird surely produced the breakthrough performance of the summer, when, at a small meeting in Belgium, he ran the 1,500m in 3:34.46 – or in old money, a 3:51.5 mile. To prove that was no fluke, he went on to make the final in Daegu, finishing 10th, Ireland’s best placing in the event.

Cragg, too, enjoyed one of his better years, making the 5,000m final in Daegu, and although he couldn’t put two good races back-to-back, just a week later ran a brilliant 13:03.53 in Brussels to break Mark Carroll’s 13-year-old Irish record, one of the toughest in the books.

That brought to 60 the number of Irish records set during 2011, including 10 Youth, 21 Junior, nine Under-23 and 19 other Senior – and almost double the 39 set in 2010.

Yet, as it turned out, the biggest performance by an Irish athlete in 2011 was in the high jump. Deirdre Ryan had been promising it for a few years now, and after improving her national record to 1.95m to make the final in Daegu, finished an excellent sixth. It was just reward for Ryan’s years of persistence, and dedication. With the bonus prize of Olympic qualification, 2012 promises even more.

But we’ll get this evening out of the way first. No one can say for sure if 2012 will be any better, although assuming we get out of Santry alive, I can promise it will be at least one day longer.